Orchiette with Broccoli Rabe, My Style

I’ve turned the way I cook pasta upside down: Instead of making 1 pound of pasta with 1 or 2 cups of sauce, I double the sauce and cut the noodles in half. The benefit? More vegetables, maybe a little meat or seafood for flavor, and fewer refined carbohydrates. This may go against everything you’ve learned about cooking pasta, but it tastes wonderful, and it works with just about any recipe, except those with heavy cheese or meat sauces.

Orchiette with Broccoli Rabe is one of my favorite combinations: the slight bitterness in the broccoli rabe is balanced by the sweetness of the fennel and sausage along with a little dose of heat. Cauliflower or broccoli are also good, though they take a little longer to become tender in Step 1. For a pure vegetarian version, skip the sausage and add about 2 cups of chickpeas to the garlic along with the red pepper flakes. Or if you’d like to add a bright flavor and a bit more moisture, replace the wine with a couple of fresh chopped tomatoes.

Salt

About 1 pound broccoli rabe, trimmed and cut into pieces

¼ cup olive oil, or more as needed

1 tablespoon chopped garlic, or more to taste

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 teaspoon fennel seeds (optional)

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ to ½ pound sweet or spicy Italian sausage (if using link sausage, squeeze it from the casing or cut it up a bit)

½ cup white wine or water

½ pound dried orchiette, penne, ziti, or other cut pasta, preferably whole wheat

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1 Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Boil the broccoli rabe until it’s crisp-tender, 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces. Scoop the broccoli rabe out of the water with a slotted spoon or small strainer and set it aside.

2 Meanwhile, put the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, crumble the sausage into the pan, and cook, stirring occasionally to break the meat into relatively small bits and brown it, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and fennel seeds if you’re using them, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue cooking and stirring for another minute or so. Add broccoli rabe and the liquid and cook, mashing and stirring until the broccoli rabe is quite soft, 2 or 3 minutes more. Turn the heat to low to keep the sauce warm.

3 Cook the pasta in the boiling water for about 5 minutes before checking the first time. When the pasta is just tender, but not quite done, drain it, reserving about a cup of the cooking water. Toss the pasta with the sauce, along with some of the pasta water to keep the mixture from drying out. Taste and adjust the seasoning and serve immediately, with the Parmesan if you like.

Baked Ziti, My Style: Use cauliflower instead of the broccoli rabe and use ziti; grease a 2-quart baking dish with some olive oil and heat the oven to 400°F. In Step 2, before you add the cauliflower to the sausage, stir in 2 cups of chopped, peeled, and seeded tomatoes (canned are fine). Cook and stir until the water is absorbed and the mixture is saucy, then add the cauliflower and proceed. In Step 3, cook the pasta for only about 5 minutes, so that it’s still quite chalky inside. When you toss the pasta with the sauce, add enough cooking water to make the mixture quite moist, but not soupy. Transfer it to the baking dish, top with the Parmesan if you like, and bake until bubbly and thickened a bit, about 20 minutes.