This recipe comes from one of the most entertaining, informative, and all around awesome chefs I've ever seen, Anne Burrell, from her new cookbook Cook Like a Rock Star: 125 Recipes, Lessons, and Culinary Secrets.
Her original recipe is called Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe Pesto & Sausage. Great. I was super excited for this dish...until I got to the grocery store. No broccoli rabe and no orecchiette (pasta shaped like ears). Bummer! So, I had to improvise and thus here you have my Burrellian inspiration with a twist!
Don't get me wrong, substitutions are completely acceptable and shouldn't deter you from making a dish. Even with a few alterations, this dish was super tasty!
Let's start with the pesto. Pesto simply means crushed, so don't think you're limited to the traditional garlic, basil, and pine nuts. Anything will do, so play with it!
Ingredients:
2 bunches of mustard greens or other dark leafy green
1/2 cup chopped pistachios
3/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano
1/4 cup mascarpone
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Directions:
Break off the tough lower part of the stem of the greens and then roughly chop the leafy part. It may look like a ton of greens, but it will reduce greatly as soon as it cooks! Rinse these greens well. Mine were extremely dirty! A good wash will do the trick.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it well. Drop the greens into the water, swirl them about, and then immediately remove them! Don't dump the water, as we'll be using it for the pasta later.
Reserve about a cup of the greens and put the rest in a food processor. Pulse it until it's a coarse paste. Add the pistachios and parmigiano and purée until smooth.
If the mixture seems a little dry, you can drizzle in some olive oil as the machine is running.
Add the mascarpone and pulse until combined. Salt to taste and then set aside. As Anne says, "It should be slightly bitter, nutty, and creamy at the same time."
That's it! Congratulations, you just made pesto!
Pictures:
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| Two bunches of mustard greens, shocked in hot water |
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| Add to food processor and pulse until coarse |
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| Add pistachios and parmigiano and purée until smooth |
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| Add mascarpone and pulse to combine |
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| Finished pesto |
The pasta is super easy, too.
Ingredients: (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture, but it's just a few ingredients!)
1/2 lb Italian sausage (sweet or spicy)
1 pound medium shell (or similar pasta)
Parmigiano
Extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
To begin, brown 1/2 pound of Italian sausage in a large sauté pan coated with olive oil over medium-heat for about 8-10 minutes or until brown and crumbly.
Meanwhile, bring the water back up to a boil and dump in your pasta. Cook about one minute less than the box recommends.
Once cooked, drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the liquid.
Add the pasta, reserved liquid, the reserved greens from the pesto, and about 2/3 of the pesto to the pan with the sausage. Stir to combine and cook until the water evaporates and the pesto is clinging to the pasta.
Remove from heat and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with parmigiano and stir to combine.
Serve it up and enjoy immediately! I would also recommend another topping of parmigiano!
Here are some pictures of the sausage and bringing everything together!
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| Brown the sausage |
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| Sausage browning |
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| Add pasta, reserved pasta water, reserved greens, and pesto |
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| Add some olive oil and parmigiano and stir to combine |
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| Finished product with some extra parmigiano on top! |
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