Happy Thursday! One of the things I love about Thursdays is scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and seeing all the Throwback Thursday posts that people share. Keeping with that theme, I like to take it back and share old recipes that I love but didn’t get much attention on here when they were originally posted. A #TBT food edition if you will. Today, I am sharing one of my favorite easy family meals: sausage Parmesan pasta with broccolini.

This dish is a combination of a few simple ingredients that, when mixed together, taste quite amazing. Because there is no real pasta sauce here or anything be sure you use as high quality ingredients as you can when choosing your cheese and pasta. A freshly grated Parmesan works best because it will give you the best flavor. I also like to use a spicy Italian sausage for a little kick but you can easily just use regular. 

Ingredients for Sausage Parmesan Pasta with Broccolini:

16 oz of orecchiette pasta
1 lb of ground Italian sausage
5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup of chopped broccolini
salt
fresh ground black pepper
fresh Parmesan cheese

Let’s Make It: 

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Once boiling, add 3-4 Tbsp of salt and return to boil. Add pasta and cook for according to package directions for al dente. Reserve 1/3 cup pasta water and then drain pasta.

2 Meanwhile, heat skillet over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and cook, stirring to crumble, until browned. Remove from pan with slotted spoon leaving the sausage drippings in the pan.

3. Add broccolini and garlic to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until broccolini is softened and garlic is lightly browned. Add sausage, pasta and reserved pasta water to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes. 

4. Transfer to serving bowl and top with fresh cracked pepper and grated Parmesan cheese. 

Orecchiette comes from the Italian word orecchia, meaning “ear”, and -etta, meaning “small.” It is a variety of home-made pasta typical of Apulia, a region of southern Italy. Its name comes from its shape, which resembles a small ear. I love using it because the shape is perfect for tucking away little bits of sausage or grated cheese in the little “ear” part.

What are your favorite pasta shapes? Do you like cooking simple pasta dishes that don’t have a lot of sauce?

Sausage Parmesan Orecchiette with Broccolini

2016-04-14 11:23:52

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Ingredients

1. 16 oz of orecchiette pasta
2. 1 lb of ground Italian sausage
3. 5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
4. 1 cup of chopped broccolini
5. salt
6. fresh ground black pepper
7. fresh Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Once boiling, add 3-4 Tbsp of salt and return to boil. Add pasta and cook for according to package directions for al dente. Reserve 1/3 cup pasta water and then drain pasta.
2. Meanwhile, heat skillet over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and cook, stirring to crumble, until browned. Remove from pan with slotted spoon leaving the sausage drippings in the pan.
3. Add broccolini and garlic to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until broccolini is softened and garlic is lightly browned. Add sausage, pasta and reserved pasta water to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Transfer to serving bowl and top with fresh cracked pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.

By My Suburban Kitchen

My Suburban Kitchen https://www.mysuburbankitchen.com/