There’s this Italian restaurant in Charlotte that Sam and I went to a couple of times when he lived there (during the brief but gut-wrenching year we dated ~long distance~ and I cried a lot. 23 is an emotional age. Thanks for putting up with me, wauwauwitty.) Anywho, they make this pasta, and it is just really ridiculously good. But simple. And I felt confident I could replicate it but also improve it and do it on the cheap. And I did, and you can too. Easy, affordable, shit load of leftovers. Recipe after the jump.

 

Broccoli and Sausage Pasta with Lemony Cream Sauce

  • 1 box/bag whole wheat pasta, preferably shells (look, the container is the serving size as far as I’m concerned, so don’t be that weird person that uses a portion of the pasta and puts the rest in a Ziploc)
  • 2 heads broccoli, trimmed and cut into florets (yes you can use the stems in bite sized pieces if you want, but I’d go down to one head if you do that)
  • ½ pound pork sausage of your choice, casings removed
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 4, because I’m a maniac, so you do you/adjust for how much of a garlic fiend you are.)
  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 2 lemons
  • ¼ cup Parmesan cheese

For optimal dish efficiency you'l want to use a deep skillet with high sides for your sausage-ing and sauce-ing.

First, brown your sausage, breaking up the chunks with a spoon as it cooks. You want little light brown crumbles. When all the pink parts are gone, dump the little crumbles onto a paper towel to dry. 

The amount of grease leftover in your pan will depend upon the fattiness of the sausage. You don’t want your pan to be clean (you want a thin layer of sausage grease for flavor) but do a quick pass with a paper towel if there’s anything more than, say, a quarter of a teaspoon in there.

Add the butter to the previously be-sausaged pan and melt. Mince garlic and toss it in. Use a spoon to scrape the delicious brown meat prints from the sausage off the bottom of your pan. Mmmm. Meat prints.

When the garlic is fragrant (aka you lean over the pan and go oh shit my kitchen smells like heaven God are you there it’s me Gilda), add in the heavy cream. Add in the juice of ONE of the lemons (use a filter of some sort so you don’t get any seeds in your sauce, I chomped into one and it ruined my night for like 6 solid minutes) plus some salt and black pepper. Stir and cook until gently bubbling.

MEANWHILE, cook your pasta and steam your broccoli. I use my little veggie steamer and it takes about 8 minutes because you want it still crunchy, but I won’t judge you if you use the Steamer bag of frozen broccoli. There’s no judgment here. Only love. And butter.

Yo, how’s your sauce? Taste it. Can you taste the lemon? If not, add the juice from HALF of your second lemon. I’m telling you, it creeps up on you, and you don’t want LEMON sauce, just a light lemon flavor. Keep cooking that sauce until it tastes just right. Then add your parmesean and cook until it melts. It should be delicious and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Salt as needed.

Add in your sausage and broccoli, and stir until everything is all be-sauced. Let it chill on super low heat for about 5 minutes. This will let the sausage flavor leach into the sauce, and the sauce to leach into the broccoli. 

Add your WW shells, toss, and enjoy. Shit is delicious. Its super, super filling, too– so if you’re the type of person to feel bad about eating cream and butter, you can soothe yourself with only needing a small portion to feel full.

Tips and Thoughts:

  • After three taste tests, Italian sausage works best, preferably the kind that’s made locally by some guy named Cooter and available by the link behind the glass at your grocery’s butcher counter. You’ll need between 2-3 large links, and you’ll need to trim the casing and get the meat stuffing out. It’s surprisingly fun.
  • Yes, it needs to be pork sausage. The strong flavor is so important to balance the lemony acidity and brightness. Honestly this dish probably isn’t worth making without pork sausage– it would be completely fine, but not blog worthy.
  • If you’re hellbent on making this sauce healthier, you could definitely use full fat plain greek yogurt or sour cream, but it’s better with heavy cream (duh). You don’t want some drippy-ass sauce that can’t hang with the legit toughness of your WW shells and broc.
  • Whole wheat pasta is the jam because it stands up so well to strong flavors. I was a VERY reluctant convert to WW pasta, and I still use my sugary white pasta for anything with a delicate sauce, but the lemon/sausage mouth party happening here is best balanced by the pleasantly cardboardy texture and earthier flavor of whole wheat.
  • When buying whole wheat pasta, don’t go thrifty. Get the $3 box instead of the 85 cent bag. It matters a whole lot more than with its white counterparts.