Fusilli with Sausage and Broccoli
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This week, I am here to remind you that classic recipes—like iconic moments in fashion—can be just perfect while also inspiring other great things. If you’re a traditionalist, those originals never go out of style. But for those who like to FAFO, the fun never stops.
Orecchiette with broccoli rabe (orecchiette con le cime di rapa) is a simple dish from Puglia that exemplifies cocina povera. Traditionally made with fresh pasta, the little orecchiette dimples capture and trap bits of cooked bitter greens (any type, really, and I’m thinking about all the radish greens currently in my fridge, but broccoli rabe is the most common). Originally, this dish would have leaned on olive oil, which was a local product, and meat would have been scarce. I’m not a food historian, but at some point a riff with sausage became super popular, and that’s the combo—orecchiette, broccoli rabe, and sausage—that I grew up eating.
Baby Carla ate the OG version a lot. Once I started cooking it for myself (and later, for my family), I grappled with a few things that can derail the finished dish. Here’s how I optimized this recipe for your success:
Issue: Not everyone loves broccoli rabe, including my own child.
Solve: Use regular broccoli (other Spin Its are in the recipe doc, below).
Issue: It can be hard to sauté pieces of broccoli in garlic and oil without burning the garlic or cooking the broccoli unevenly.
Solve: Pre-cook the broccoli pieces in the salted water you’re using for the pasta; this not only seasons them, it lets you control exactly how crisp or tender you want them to be. Remember this trick anytime you’re making a pasta sauce with veggies; I do it all the time with green beans, cauliflower, and even leafy greens like kale.
Issue: Orecchiette isn’t my favorite shape.
Solve: Girl, same. Sub fusilli corti bucati (short fusilli with a hole in the center), or regular fusilli, because curls have more fun.
Issue: The sausage never seems to get browned or crisp enough.
Solve: Watch the video for another successful application of my patented Kill It On the First Side™️ technique.
Issue: The original doesn’t call for cheese. Crying!
Solve: Add cheese! Two kinds: ricotta and Parm. Because we love ourselves!
This dish has been in my rotation since I was a college student on a budget, and I usually couldn’t afford to add sausage, either. Vegetarians: omitting it brings you closer to the dish’s origins. Make sure to add a few extra ribbons of good olive oil, just like my ancestors from Bari would.