Best Italian Sausage And Mustard Greens Recipes

PENNE WITH SAUSAGE AND GREENS

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the penne and cook as the label directs. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until browned and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the collard greens, garlic, pepper flakes and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens are wilted, about 3 minutes.
• Add the pasta, lemon zest, and half of the reserved pasta water to the skillet and toss. If needed, add more of the pasta water and toss again. Serve topped with Parmesan.

SAUSAGE & GREENS SOUP

Steps:

• In a 6-qt. stockpot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, celery and carrot; cook 6-8 minutes or until sausage is no longer pink and vegetables are tender, breaking up sausage into crumbles. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer., Stir in Swiss chard, tomatoes, bay leaf and seasonings. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 10-12 minutes or until Swiss chard is tender. Stir in beans and lemon juice; heat through. Remove bay leaf.

SPAGHETTI WITH ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND MIXED GREENS

Steps:

• Whisk oil, lemon juice and garlic in small bowl to blend. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.
• Cook sausages in heavy medium skillet over medium heat until browned and cooked through, turning frequently, about 20 minutes. Using tongs, transfer sausages to paper towels and drain; cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Combine sausage rounds and greens in large bowl.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain well.
• Add hot pasta to bowl with sausage rounds and greens; toss until greens begin to wilt. Mix in enough dressing to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide pasta among bowls. Top with cheese and serve.

ITALIAN GREENS AND BEANS WITH SAUSAGE VARIATION

Steps:

• I process onions and garlic lightly, then saute them in olive oil until they are transparent in a good-sized pot on medium. (I suppose you could chop these things, but why? Also, by "good-sized" I mean a pot that will contain all of the escarole leaves).
• Add sausage and cook thoroughly, but not overly. Turn up the heat a bit.
• When sausage is looking about done, add tomato chopped to your liking. I chop it small.
• Add the cleaned and rinsed escarole. Sometimes Escarole heads can be really big or pretty puny. Since 2 puny heads (~size of a larger grapefruit) = 1 really big head (~size of a football), opt for whatever combination you can get. To clean it, I just take off a bunch of leaves, rinse them under cold water, snap them in half, and throw them in the pot. Don't worry about water getting into the pot. Let the escarole cook all the way down to the point you see the lines at the base of the leaf. You'll see what I mean. Don't undercook it. You'll taste it and it's not a good taste. At this point I rely on the taste test to know when it's done.
• Once escarole is sufficiently wilted, add your canellini beans. Of course, make sure they are sufficiently rinsed then drained. Heat them thoroughly.
• Add chicken stock, more or less depending on how soupy you want it. The broth is so good that you may want to make it soupy, which I did the second time around!
• Let it simmer until the outer layer sheds off of the canellini beans. Serve with some warm crusty bread (I use the whole grain because it's SBD-friendly) and enjoy!