What’s for dinner? Napoli pasta dish
3/23/2014Spring, with its lighter, greener dishes, has just arrived, but it’s not too late for a hearty taste of winter. This Napoli pasta dish marries loose sausage meat cooked in red wine with chile, garlic, and cavoli, Italian for the Brassica family of cabbages.
I opted for cauliflower, but instead of boiling it as instructed, I roasted it in olive oil. I paired it with imported torchietti, a bell-shaped noodle. It was perfect for grabbing up little bits of sausage and caramelized vegetable.
Pasta with Cauliflower or Broccoli Rabe and Sausage
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 cauliflower (about 3 pounds), trimmed and cut into florets, or the same amount of broccoli or broccoli rabe
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small piece very hot dried chile or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
7 ounces finely ground unseasoned bulk sausage
½ cup dry, full-bodied red wine
1 pound orecchiette, fusilli, or penne
Grated pecorino
Bring 5 quarts water to boil in an 8-quart pot over high heat. Add salt, then vegetables, and boil until just tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Reserve cooking water in the pot for boiling the pasta later. (I used cauliflower, but roasted it with a little olive oil in a 450-degree oven for 30 minutes instead of boiling it.)
Put oil, garlic, and piece of chile (but not pepper flakes) in a large, deep skillet that will hold all the pasta later. Saute for a few minutes, just until garlic is golden and chile has darkened, then discard garlic and chile. Crumble sausage meat into skillet. Brown evenly, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Raise heat and add wine. Let it bubble until smell of alcohol has disappeared, about 2 minutes. Stir often to keep meat from sticking. (The sausage will look purple from the wine, but not to worry.) Add cooked vegetables and mix well. If you are using pepper flakes instead of a single piece of chile, add them now.
Bring vegetable water back to boil and cook pasta until al dente. While pasta is cooking, reheat vegetables and sausage over low heat. After pasta is half done, add a little of its cooking water to sauce and let it absorb.
When pasta is al dente, transfer it, dripping wet, with a handheld colander or spider strainer to skillet. Mix well over low heat for just half a minute.
Mix in cheese and serve immediately.
Serves 6. Adapted from Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way by Oretta Zanini de Vita and Maureen B. Fant (W.W. Norton, Oct. 2013, $35)
The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gretchen McKay is a writer for the Post-Gazette. Contact her at: gmckay@post-gazette.com.