“O”recchiette Gina

On Monday, I posted about the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Contest, and I promised to share a recipe beginning or ending with "O", in honor of the event!

You may also remember a few weeks ago that I wrote about my birthday dinner with my ladies club. One of the dishes my friend enjoyed was a dish with orecchiette (meaning little ear in Italian), fennel sausage, sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli rabe.

I decided to experiment and try my hand at replicating that dish. In honor of Gina DiPalma, I have decided to call it:

Orecchiette Gina

(serves 2)

1/2 pound dried orecchiette pasta

good olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

6-8 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 bunch of broccoli rabe- use top third of each stalk

1/2 pound fennel sausage, removed from casing, pulled apart into large chunks

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Place chopped sun-dried tomatoes in a small bowl of hot water, for about 5 minutes, to plump them. Drain, set aside. Place broccoli rabe in a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes to remove bitterness, drain and set aside. Put another pot of salted water on the boil. Add the orecchiette and boil until al dente, maybe 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, place chunks of sausage in pan, season with salt and pepper and brown over med-high heat. Remove when nicely browned. Turn heat down and add garlic to pan. Saute a few minutes. Add sun-dried tomatoes saute a few minutes more. Add broccoli rabe. Check for seasoning.

When pasta is cooked, strain one scoop at a time right into the saute pan. Add sausage back into pan. Stir to combine flavors. Add some pasta water if the dish looks too dry, and serve.