Food & Wine (April 2013)
Here are some things we like right now:
- Temperatures are up. Goodbye, winter coats!
- Mad Men is back! Though we're sad to say that you're breaking our hearts, Don Draper....
- Our garden is starting to show signs of life. Little bits of green are peeking up through the dirt. Let's hope they're not weeds. More on that next week.
- The Cherry Blossoms hit their peak in our nation's capital this week. Yesterday, before work, we biked down to see them. We're so fortunate to live in such a beautiful city.
Yes, spring is here, and we couldn't be happer about it.
But here's something we don't like quite as much: We've both been incredibly busy at work as of late. And work, she takes up a lot of time. Between that and our thirst for more time outside, it means less time in the kitchen.
We're still cooking dinner at home most nights of the week. But during the work week, we need meals that we can throw together in a short amount of time, with little thinking required.
We need meals like this Broccoli Rabe with Sausage.
This recipe comes from Food & Wine's April Italian issue. If you listen to Splendid Table or other food shows, you've likely heard magazine editor Dana Cowin and this issue's guest editor, Mario Batali, making the rounds to promote the issue. He's their first guest editor! They ended up in a bathtub with Jimmy Fallon! No one is clear exactly what "guest editor" means!
We enjoyed the Italian issue and have already made a handful of dishes from it. But we started with this recipe for Broccoli Rabe with Sausage. As the magazine points out, it's a play on the popular sandwich that uses the same ingredients. Here, the rabe and sausage ditch the bread. Perhaps, like us, they're trying to slim down for summer.
The method here couldn't be easier. Briefly boil and then chop the rabe. Cook the sausage. Add the rabe and spice the dish. Sprinkle on a bit of cheese. It's a 30 thirty minutes of cooking, from start to finish.
Though there's nothing particularly notable about this recipe -- it's a very straightforward way of combining broccoli rabe and sausage -- we really enjoyed it. It's flavorful and satisfying. And without pasta or bread, it almost seems virtuous. We hadn't purchased rabe in a long time, and we were reminded how much we love it, as we sat forking it with big hunks of Italian sausage.
Next time you're at the supermarket, grab the ingrdients for this Broccoli Rabe with Sausage. And when you get in a pinch for time, toss it together for a quick weeknight meal. Then let the dishes linger while you get out and enjoy the spring air.
Broccoli Rabe with Sausage
Food & Wine (April 2013), recipe by Gabe Thompson
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(This photo: Food & Wine)
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4
INGREDIENTS
1 pound broccoli rabe
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces hot Italian sausage—casings removed, meat crumbled
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Pinch of crushed red pepper
Salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup grated pecorino cheese
METHOD
In a pot of salted boiling water, cook the broccoli rabe until nearly tender, 4 minutes. Drain and cool under cold water. Squeeze and pat dry, then chop.
In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the sausage and cook over moderately high heat, breaking it up into small pieces, until browned. Add 3 more tablespoons of oil, the garlic and red pepper to the skillet and cook for 1 minute. Add the broccoli rabe and cook, stirring, until tender, 3 minutes. Season with salt. Add the lemon juice and toss. Serve with pecorino.
