Whole-Grain Reginetti with Rapini and Sausage
Stateside, pasta with rapini and sausage is much more common than the traditional Puglian combo of orecchiette, rapini and anchovies. We’re not big fans of supermarket dried orecchiette, so our pasta of choice for this is the outstanding dried organic whole-grain reginetti from New York-based Sfloglini. But feel free to use any short pasta shape you like; farfalle or penne both work well.
The dish calls for bread crumbs toasted in oil with garlic, but even without that flourish, it’s excellent, so if you want to get this on the table in a jiff, omit them. (On the other hand, if you do make our garlic bread crumbs, you’ll have extra — enough for about three batches of the dish, and they’ll keep for a week or more stored in an airtight container.)
Our treatment of the rapini was inspired by a recipe in New York chef Missy Robbins’ 2021 cookbook Pasta. Robbins has you separate the rapini leaves from the stems and florets, chop the leaves finely, and chop the rest into small pieces. She braises the greens with anchovies in white wine and water. Again, we’re not using the anchovies, but we love the way cutting everything so small and braising encourages the greens to break down into a sauce.
Serves 3 to 4.
Ingredients
For the garlic bread crumbs:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed
1/2 cup bread crumbs (not panko)
Big pinch of salt
For the pasta:
1 nice bunch rapini (broccoli rape), about 10.5 ounces
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 pounds Italian sausage (bulk or removed from casings)
Salt
9 ounces whole-grain reginetti or other dried pasta
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 teaspoon chile flakes or a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of Aleppo pepper
1/3 cup (about 1/2 ounce) finely grated Parmesan, plus more for passing at the table
Instructions
1. First make the garlic bread crumbs. Line a plate with a folded paper towel. Place the olive oil and the garlic in a small skillet or sauté pan and heat over medium-low heat just until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 3 minutes. Remove the garlic and save it for another use. Add the bread crumbs and salt and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently so the bread crumbs don’t burn, until they’re golden-brown, about 4 or 5 minutes. Transfer them to the paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
2. Trim the bottoms of the rapini, and remove any yellow or icky leaves. Pull all the leaves off the stems and chop them finely. Set aside. Cut the stems and florets into small pieces (about 1/4 inch or so) and set aside apart from the chopped leaves.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. When the water’s almost boiling, Place the garlic and the olive oil in a large skillet and heat over low heat about 90 seconds, until the garlic becomes fragrant. Without letting the garlic brown, add the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and combining it with the garlic so the garlic doesn’t burn. Turn the heat to medium-high and brown the sausage for 5 minutes, stirring now and then (and making sure the garlic doesn’t burn) then turn off the heat.
4. Add the pasta to the water and stir. After it has cooked 5 minutes, turn the heat back on under the sausage to medium-high and let it heat back up for a moment. Stir in the rapini stems and florets, then stir in the wine, the chile flakes or Aleppo pepper and 3/4 cups of the pasta water (scoop it out with a ladle while the pasta continues to boil). Reduce the heat to medium or medium low, so it’s just simmering, and let the rapini braise for about 5 minutes, until it is tender. Stir in the rapini leaves and cook 1 one more minute. If the pasta’s not done yet, turn off the heat.
5. When the pasta is tender but still al dente, scoop out another half cup or so of the pasta water and set aside. Drain the pasta, add it to the sausage and rapini, and toss to combine over medium heat. If the sauce is too tight, stir in a splash of the reserved pasta water. Remove from the heat, add about half of the grated Parmesan, taste and adjust seasoning. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with about 2 tablespoons of the garlic bread crumbs and the rest of the grated Parm.
Whole-Grain Reginetti with Rapini and Sausage
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs (not panko)
- Big pinch of salt
- 1 nice bunch rapini (broccoli rape), about 10.5 ounces
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3/4 pounds Italian sausage (bulk or removed from casings)
- Salt
- 9 ounces whole-grain reginetti or other dried pasta
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/4 teaspoon'data-amount-secondary='1 g'>1/4 teaspoon chile flakes or a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of Aleppo pepper
- 1/3 cup (about 1/2 ounce) finely grated Parmesan, plus more for passing at the table
Instructions
- First make the garlic bread crumbs. Line a plate with a folded paper towel. Place the olive oil and the garlic in a small skillet or sauté pan and heat over medium-low heat just until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 3 minutes. Remove the garlic and save it for another use. Add the bread crumbs and salt and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently so the bread crumbs don’t burn, until they’re golden-brown, about 4 or 5 minutes. Transfer them to the paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
- Trim the bottoms of the rapini, and remove any yellow or icky leaves. Pull all the leaves off the stems and chop them finely. Set aside. Cut the stems and florets into small pieces (about 1/4 inch or so) and set aside apart from the chopped leaves.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. When the water’s almost boiling, Place the garlic and the olive oil in a large skillet and heat over low heat about 90 seconds, until the garlic becomes fragrant. Without letting the garlic brown, add the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and combining it with the garlic so the garlic doesn’t burn. Turn the heat to medium-high and brown the sausage for 5 minutes, stirring now and then (and making sure the garlic doesn’t burn) then turn off the heat.
- Add the pasta to the water and stir. After it has cooked 5 minutes, turn the heat back on under the sausage to medium-high and let it heat back up for a moment. Stir in the rapini stems and florets, then stir in the wine, the chile flakes or Aleppo pepper and 3/4 cups of the pasta water (scoop it out with a ladle while the pasta continues to boil). Reduce the heat to medium or medium low, so it’s just simmering, and let the rapini braise for about 5 minutes, until it is tender. Stir in the rapini leaves and cook 1 one more minute. If the pasta’s not done yet, turn off the heat.
- When the pasta is tender but still al dente, scoop out another half cup or so of the pasta water and set aside. Drain the pasta, add it to the sausage and rapini, and toss to combine over medium heat. If the sauce is too tight, stir in a splash of the reserved pasta water. Remove from the heat, add about half of the grated Parmesan, taste and adjust seasoning. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with about 2 tablespoons of the garlic bread crumbs and the rest of the grated Parm.
