Penne With Sausage and Kale

Submitted by KelBel

"Hearty ingredients load this quick Italian dinner with spicy, cheesy flavor. Adapted from epicurious.com"

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1⁄2 lb hot Italian turkey sausage, casings discarded and sausage crumbled
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 lb kale, tough stems and center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
• 1⁄2 lb penne
• 2⁄3 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1⁄2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

directions

1. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Add garlic, onion and sausage, breaking up any lumps with a spoon, until browned, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, blanch kale in a 6-quart pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, 5 minutes. Remove kale with a large sieve and drain. Return cooking water in pot to a boil, then cook pasta in boiling water, uncovered, until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain pasta in a colander.
3. While pasta cooks, add kale to sausage in skillet and sauté, stirring frequently, until just tender, about 5 minutes. Add broth, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from bottom of skillet, then add pasta and 1/2 cup reserved cooking water to skillet, tossing until combined. Stir in cheese and thin with additional cooking water if desired.
4. Serve immediately, with additional cheese on the side.

Reviews

[Whitney H.]

This was super delicious and fairly simple to make. I didn't have any sausage on hand, so I used chicken tenderloins instead and it was a perfect substitute. Any noodle choice will work- I'd skip long noodles like linguini or angel hair. I used farfalle noodles last time and plan on making this again tonight using different pasta again.

 

[One Happy Woman]

Excellent - this was a big hit. I made a few changes, using mushrooms that needed to be used up, sliced up some chicken-basil sausages - used some organic bagged cut kale, added lemon pepper and chopped garlic. Mr. Wonderful said: "put this in the rotation."

 

[cerealfordinner]

I'm not much of a cook, but this was pretty easy and DELICIOUS. I had to look up online how to clean up the kale and blanch it (again, not much of a cook). I used "Chicken Fiesta" sausage and added some fresh ground pepper and a little salt. Otherwise I followed the recipe as is. My husband ate two big bowls, and told me he couldn't stop thinking about that dinner all the next day. :)

 

[Lori C.]

Delicious as is and also easy to vary based on what you have on hand. Tonight I prepared with cheese tortellini instead of penne.

 

[Ktab96]

I also use mild turkey sauage instead of hot. Yummy