Orecchiette with Black Kale and Sausage

I was afraid of kale for many years because almost all of the kale I had eaten was as easy to chew as someone’s front lawn, and not much tastier. Now, however, I know that kale can be delicious if you buy black kale (aka dinosaur kale aka Tuscan kale aka lacinato kale aka (in Italian) cavolo nero) and cook it first in water and then in oil. This is a staple dish of mine that is loosely based on a classic pasta from Puglia, the heel of the boot of Italy. In Puglia, fresh orecchiette is paired with cime di rapa (similar to American broccoli rabe) along with good olive oil, garlic, and maybe some dried chilies and breadcrumbs.

You can make this dish with any kind of hearty green. I’ve made it with dandelion greens (cicoria in Italian), escarole, Swiss chard, spinach, broccoli rabe, and broccolini. I like black kale because it lends both tender leaves and small green bits that give the dish an appealing color.

In Puglia, this dish would be served as a primo (pasta course) and would not include sausage. I generally prefer cooking one main course unless it is a special occasion, so I add sausages to make the dish heartier. Pancetta, guanciale (cured pork jowl similar to pancetta, but fattier and slightly funkier), or even bacon would work instead of sausages.

Fresh orecchiette is made from semolina flour and water (no eggs). I’ve been meaning to make fresh orecchiette, but in the meantime, dried orecchiette works well. Egg-based pastas, such as tagliatelle or pappardelle, are harder to replace with dried pasta. Any short, stubby pasta would work well with this dish, but orecchiette is good at picking up the clumps of greens and sausage. Orecchiette is one of my favorite pasta shapes, but you have to careful when you cook it. Like any pasta shape that can tesselate, it will stick if you don’t stir it very often, and you’ll end up with inedible clumps of pasta.

Many Italian green vegetable dishes are made in similar way: boil the vegetables, then sauté in olive oil with garlic and dried chilies. You can stop right there and you’ll have a tasty contorno (side dish). This dish is made with a similar method. I therefore begin the dish by boiling torn strips of black kale while I sauté chunks sausage in a large skillet. I always remove the sausage from its casing when cooking with sausage.

After the kale is parboiled, cook the pasta in the same water. It takes about as long to sauté the kale as it does to boil the pasta. Thus, before the kale finishes boiling, I remove the sausage from the pan and slowly sauté minced garlic and dried chilies–the soffritto.

All that’s left to do is combine all the different components into the final dish. First, add the kale to the soffritto and continue sautéing. The kale will release water that will prevent the garlic from burning.

When the kale stops releasing water, add the sausage back into the pan. Then, transfer the orecchiette from the pasta pot to the pan with the kale and sausage mixture when the pasta is about three minutes shy of al dente.

At this point, there will be almost no sauce to speak of. The basis for the sauce is pasta water. Pasta water is starchy and helps bind pasta to sauce. In a dish like this, where there is no tomato or cream or meat sauce, pasta water is basically the sauce, and is even more important. I will add half a cup to a cup of pasta water, ladle by ladle until the pasta stops absorbing the sauce, along with a generous drizzle of good olive oil. The pasta water, olive oil, and little bits of greens will emulsify, forming a slightly shiny, green-tinged sauce.

The traditional way to finish the dish is with breadcrumbs. However, I always have Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano on hand and almost never have breadcrumbs, so I add a thin dusting of cheese along with another drizzle of good olive oil.

Ingredients (serves 2 as a main course)

8 oz dried orecchiette

1 bunch black kale

8 oz sweet Italian sausage

Cooking grade extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1 dried red chili or small pinch of chili flakes

Extra virgin olive oil for finishing

Breadcrumbs toasted in olive oil or grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano

Method

1. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Remove the kale stems and tear the leaves into rough strips and add to the boiling water. Remove after 8 minutes.
2. While the kale is boiling, remove the sausage from the casings and break into chunks. Sauté over medium-high heat in a large skillet until light brown on the outside and cooked through.
3. Remove the sausage from the pan and reduce heat to medium low. Add enough olive oil to thoroughly coat the bottom of the pan and add the garlic and chilies, along with a small pinch of salt.
4. When the garlic just begins to change color, add the kale and another small pinch of salt and increase the heat to medium. Add the orecchiette to the boiling water at about the same time that you add the kale to the skillet.
5. When the kale stops releasing water (about 5 minutes), add the sausage back to the skillet.
6. Add the orecchiette to the skillet and mix in with the kale and sausage when the orecchiette is about 3 minutes shy of al dente.
7. Add 1/2-1 cup of pasta water to the skillet, ladle by ladle, along with a generous drizzle of good olive oil. Keep adding water every 30 seconds or so until the pasta stops absorbing it. Continually stir the pasta and try to evenly mix in the sausage and kale.
8. Finish with a drizzle of good olive oil and breadcrumbs or a small amount of grated cheese.

Notes and Variations

1. Be careful when you add salt to the kale. The kale will reduce significantly while you sauté it so it can be easy to oversalt it.
2. This dish can be made with almost any hearty green vegetable. The only difference in method will be the length of time you boil the vegetable. The thicker and heartier the leaves, the longer you need to boil them.
3. Omit the sausage if you want to serve this dish with a meat course or if you want a vegetarian dish.
4. Replace the sausage with guanciale, pancetta, or bacon.
5. Replace the sausage with a couple anchovies. Instead of removing the anchovies, add the garlic and chilies directly to the oil containing the anchovies and use much less salt.