Growing up, one of my favorite dishes that my mother would bless the dinner table with is something we just referred to as “Cavatelli [gaavaad-EEL] and Broccoli”. It’s an uncomplicated and satisfying pasta containing only a handful of ingredients, centered around bitter rapini and flavorful Italian sausage. This dish comes together quick enough for a weeknight meal but also offers the kind of hearty satisfaction that makes Sunday dinner special. There’s not much better than a one-dish dinner that can be put together in minutes, whether you’re trying to impress a crowd or just treating yourself. As with most traditional Italian dishes the preparation is simple with a focus on quality of ingredients, but naturally I had to put my own twist on this Pugliese classic.

Hand made pasta with rapini in a light garlic and oil sauce is an old staple in Puglia. Traditionally made with either cavatelli or orecchiette, occasionally featuring sausage, it’s a classic example of Italian resourcefulness where humble ingredients are transformed into something extraordinary. American-Italians on the East Coast refer to the green as broccoli rabe and savor it alongside roast pork or sausage in sandwiches, where the bitterness of the broccoli rabe balances the richness of the meats. It also stars in hearty soups and, of course, pairs magnificently with pasta just as it did in the old country. Thanks to Italian-American cooks keeping their heritage alive you can find rapini on menus and in stores across the world.

Puglia is the ‘heel’ of the ‘boot’ of Italy, to go any further South you’d have to set sail across the Mediterranean to Sicily. While I have basked on the Almafi Coast my travels are yet to take me across the mainland to the Eastern shores of Southern Italy. Still, I've heard the tales of the legendary Pugliese women, their weathered chairs sat on charming Italian sidewalks where they churn out orecchiette by hand day in and day out. The art of making orecchiette, or ‘little ears’, is a labor of love, and these women wear their tradition with pride while preparing each noodle by hand without relying on any special equipment. For them it not only preserves tradition but promotes a sense of community and binds generations together.

In this dish cavatelli and orecchiette are interchangeable as the only difference between the two is their shape, with one resembling a seashell and the other an ear. Both are handmade without the need for modern equipment and crafted from just two ingredients: semolina flour and water. I know there’s a variation of both of these pastas with ricotta cheese in the dough, but we’re not covering that here. Pastas originating in the humble south of Italy generally only feature water and flour while pastas originating in the north of Italy, like linguine and fettuccine, tend to be made with eggs. Pasta with eggs offers a richer, more delicate flavor and texture, ideal for filled pastas such as ravioli, while eggless pasta is chewier and robust, better for hearty sauces and ingredients.

Nothing against the Orecchiette-making ladies of Puglia, but I’m making this dish with cavatelli because that’s how my mother served in my childhood home. If you’d like to make orecchiette just make the same dough and use your thumb to press out orecchiette into their signature shape. For the sausage I recommend finding an Italian butcher and giving their house-made sausage a try, if you’re in downtown Manhattan I can vouch for Ottomanelli’s in Greenwich Village or Pino’s in SoHo. There’s not a lot of ingredients in this dish, and when that is the case you should make sure each ingredient is quality. I like to get a few links each of the spicy and sweet sausages and use both, but if you can’t find spicy sausage and still like a kick dust your bowl with some Calabrese chili flakes upon serving.

For your greens, I’ve used broccoli rabe, broccolini, even regular American broccoli. In Tuscany they make a version of this dish with cavolo nero, and while I’ve never tried I think escarole, mustard greens, even kale could be suitable substitutions. Go with what you like and what you have access to, ideally at a farmers market or produce store, and make sure you clean your greens thoroughly as all of the above are known to bring some dirt home with them. My favorite, and most traditional, is rapini. Also consider what you are cooking when you are cooking it, if you’re using tough kale you may want to blanch it whereas tender broccolini can just be sautéed. I’ll later share my tactic for cooking the rapini that turns their tough stems tender.

The most basic way to prepare this would be to brown your sausage with garlic, add in cleaned and chopped rapini to sauté, then add in your cooked pasta and toss. My version of this dish is not too far from the original, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve to allow every ingredient to live up to its full potential that I think takes it to the next level.

First, we’ll take our high-quality Italian sausage out of the casing and drop it into a hot, dry pan. Cook the shit out of this sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until all the fat is rendered out and we are left with crispy, dark brown bits of porky goodness. The sausage comes out of the pan and in goes the garlic, which will become fragrant and crispy in the hot pork fat in no time. Then in goes the cut and cleaned rapini, with about a quarter-cup of chicken broth to deglaze, and the pot gets covered to let it steam. Steaming the greens helps to get those tough stems super tender without blanching. No need to go overboard with the broth; we're not making soup here. Once the chicken broth does its magic let it cook off and we’re left with flavorful broccoli rabe. Toss that crispy sausage back into the mix, add the cooked pasta, and give it all a good stir.

Here’s where the magic happens. I’ll add freshly grated lemon zest, parmigiano reggiano cheese, olive oil, a little bit of pasta water, and a knob of butter. The bright, citrusy flavor of the lemon zest cuts through the rich and bitter dish and elevates all of the flavors. We add butter and parmigiano along with the olive oil and pasta water as an emulsifier, so that when we stir this around the heat from the pan will create a silky sauce that’s as light as a linen shirt. In my latest version of this I shaved in some ricotta salata I bought from the Italian store with my sausage, and it was a welcome addition.

I can’t say enough good things about this classic dish. Its hearty, crowd-pleasing, comes together quickly and requires a shopping list so short you don’t even need to write it down. It’s a dish that allows the beauty of simplistic Italian cooking to shine and doesn’t require any fancy equipment or cooking methods. It reminds me of home, and along with a bottle of wine can turn strangers into friends around the dinner table. I hope you’ll give this Italian classic a try for your next pasta party.

Cavatelli e Rapini

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Ingredients

Cavatelli (~1lb)
-300g Semolina Flour
-150g Warm Water
-1 t Salt

Cavatelli e Rapini
-1lb Cavatelli
-1 lb High-Quality Italian Sausage
-1 Bunch Broccoli Rabe
-3-5 Cloves Garlic
-1/4 c Chicken Broth
-2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-1 T Butter
-Zest of 1 Lemon
-4 oz Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese + more for serving
-Calabrese Chili Flakes (optional)

Method

1. Make your cavatelli dough: Place flour in a heap on a clean counter top and make a well in the center. Add in salt and water.

2. Mix the water and flour from the inside out, slowly incorporating all of the flour without making a mess. Use a bench scraper or fork to mix in all of the dry flour from the outside of the heap into the water.

3. When mixed switch to your hands, and knead the dough into a ball. Continue to knead for at least five minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Don’t get lazy here and make sure you are thoroughly kneading this dough, it’ll get tough toward the end as the gluten develops.

4. Cover and let the dough relax for at least 30 mins, up to a few hours.

5. Cut your dough ball into four pieces so it’s easier to work with. Roll out on an un-floured* surface until it is a snake about a half-inch in diameter.
   *chef’s note: do everything you can to not flour your counter here, the end result will be much chewier and better. If your dough snake is really sticking use a small amount of flour to help.

6. Cut your snake into pieces approximately a half-inch long. Lay the piece on the counter and press your index and middle finger firmly into the dough, and drag across the counter until it curls. Make sure you are applying enough pressure to really thin out the dough, each cavatelli will take 3-5 seconds to make. You’ll get a feel for this with some practice but you know what they should look like so try to get them to resemble that signature seashell shape.

7. Put your cavatelli onto a lightly floured surface in one layer. Let dry for 30 mins up to a few hours, or freeze on the baking sheet before transfering to a bag to save space. If your freeze them, keep frozen until you drop them in the water to cook.

8. Let’s get dinner started: get your pot or dutch oven ripping hot.

9. Take your sausage out of the casing and drop it into the hot, dry pan*. Use a wooden spoon to break it up and distribute it evenly in your pot.
   *chef’s note: resist the urge to put oil in your pan here, we are going to render most of the fat out of this sausage. We want little crispy bits of sausage stuck to the bottom of this pan since we are going to deglaze the pan and get all of that flavor worked into our sauce.

10. Be patient, and let this sausage cook, agitating with your wooden spoon periodically. We want this to be crispy and flavorful.

11. While your sausage is browning, chop your garlic. Remove the lower 2’’ of your rapini stems and discard. Chop the rest into pieces about 1’’ long. Agitate the rapini in a bowl with cold water to clean, rule of thumb here is three rinses. Dry thoroughly when cleaned.

12. When your sausage is fully browned, remove from the pan. If there’s not enough pork fat to cover the bottom of the pan, add in a little olive oil.

13. Lower the heat and drop in your garlic. It won’t take long for it to get crispy and fragrant, 2-4 minutes.

14. When the garlic is done, add in the chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pan. Add in the rapini and cover with the lid to steam for a few minutes.

15. In a separate pot, fill with water and add salt. Bring to a boil.

16. Uncover the pot and mix the rapini, ensuring the flavorful bits from the bottom of the pan are scraped up and incorporated. Add back in the sausage and kill the heat.

17. Drop your cavatelli into the boiling water and let cook. You’ll know they’re done when they float all the way to the top of the pot. As your cavatelli make their way to the top of the water, scoop them out and toss into your rapini/sausage pot. Don’t discard your pasta water, we will need it shortly.

18. When all your pasta is all in the the pot with the sausage and rapini, add in the lemon zest, parmigiano reggiano cheese, olive oil, and butter. If using chili flakes, add now. Toss to combine.

19. Add in a scoop of pasta water, and keep mixing. Add more pasta water as needed to form a subtle and silky sauce and make sure all of your ingredients are combined. Once combined, you’re ready to serve.

Serving

1. This can be served in a bowl, but looks great on a flat shallow plate. Scoop the pasta mixture into the center of the plate making sure to get all of the ingredients.

2. Top with more freshly shaved parmigiano reggiano cheese, and a little fresh grated lemon zest. If you’d like, why not another shake of Calabrese chilis.

3. Make sure you get pasta, sausage, and broccoli rabe in every bite. Best enjoyed with a glass of bold Italian red wine and good company.