Sausage and Broccolini Pasta
Sausage and broccolini pasta is a hearty pasta dish that’s perfect for busy weeknights or lazy entertaining with good friends and big glasses of wine.
Ingredients
- 10 ounces pasta bucatini or pappardelle are both awesome
- 10-12 ounces broccolini
- 1 pound ground sausage Option: swap with ground turkey
- 1 medium Vidalia onion approximately 6.5 oz, sliced
- 4 large cloves garlic roughly minced
- 4 tablespoons capers I roughly drain the capers, any briny juice that makes its way to the dish is welcome
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground fennel
- ½ teaspoon chili flakes
- 3 teaspoons lemon zest approximately 1 lemon's worth
- 1 ½ cups reserved hot pasta water plus up to ½ cup more as needed - can swap extra ½ cup with chicken or vegetable stock if you don’t have any more pasta water.
- 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice plus a spritz or two more when you serve
- ¾ cup pecorino or parmesan + more to serve
- ¾ cup chopped basil
- Optional: Ground fermented black garlic powder Trader Joe’s carries it at the time of writing this post and it's packed with umami.
Instructions
- Make Pasta. Add pasta to a large pot of salted water and make al dente pasta according to package instructions. Add broccolini to cook for 2-3 minutes before it's time to drain the pasta. Before you drain the pasta, remove at least 2 cups of the pasta water Drain. Set aside.
- Make sausage. Let sausage cook in a large skillet or frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, capers, salt, fennel, chili flakes and lemon zest. Cook until onions are translucent, 3-5 minutes, adjusting heat if necessary. Taste and add more salt to taste.
- Combine. Add cooked pasta to the sausage mixture and toss in reserved pasta water, butter, lemon juice over medium heat. Add parmesan. Toss. If you feel like the pasta needs a little more liquid, you can always add a splash of water, veggie or chicken broth. If it feels like there is a lot of liquid, no worries. The pasta will absorb and you'll end up with slightly saucier noodles. It's hard to go wrong here.
- Toss in herbs. Taste and adjust salt and lemon juice to taste. Grate more parmesan over the top of the pasta and garnish with more basil leaves. Optionally, give the pasta a generous sprinkle of ground, fermented black garlic; I've been adding 1 teaspoon to an adult-sized dinner portion and it is to die for.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!