Anything from leftover chicken or beef or potatoes to shellfish can be topped with amazing butter sauce. fast, simple, creamy, and great!
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 30 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) box penne pasta
- 1 pound hot Italian sausage links, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 pound broccoli rabe, cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup pasta boiling water
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the penne, and return to a boil. Cook the pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 11 minutes. Drain well in a colander set in the sink, reserving 1/2 cup of the water.
- Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir the sausage pieces, garlic, and red pepper flakes in the hot pan until the sausage is no longer pink on the outside, about 4 minutes. Stir in the broccoli rabe and 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Pour in the reserved 1/2 cup of pasta boiling water. Cover, and cook until the sausage is no longer pink in the center and the broccoli rabe is tender, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Stir the cooked pasta, broccoli rabe, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese together until evenly mixed. Season to taste with salt and pepper to serve.
- Soak broccoli rabe with leaves down in a bowl of cold water for 20 minutes while you prepare everything else. You can either cut just the tips of the broccoli rabe or chop it into large pieces. You can adjust the heat with the crushed red pepper flakes. This can also work with mild sausage or turkey sausage. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 498 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 62 g |
| Cholesterol | 34 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 734 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I really think the T of red pepper flakes has to be a typo. We love spicy food, but even using less than a tsp of it, it was still too hot for most of the family. We also double the Parmesan cheese. Good recipe despite the fire.
Very Easy to make- tasted great
Really yummy! Subbed in asparagus, added a little lemon juice: super good recipe!
I was very pleased with this recipe, made a few adjustments including 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes, 1/4 cup green onion, roughly twice the amount of fresh grated parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup pasta sauce. Cut the red pepper to only 1 teaspoon. Turned out great.
This was very good and very spicy. Next time I will use less pasta. It’s a keeper!
I made this today. We like spicy so the red pepper flakes were fine. I did cook sausage in olive oil and cut back a litle on the pasta water. I added additional olive oil for a nice sauce.
Not my favorite.
We reduced the amount of red pepper flakes to half and it was just spicy enough! Loved this dish!
Pretty easy to cook and tasty!
Yumm!
Extremely easy to make and so good. As in, easier than every recipe that claims to be easy. I added red peppers and onions, but the recipe tastes perfect without them. I used sausage meat instead of sausages which I prefer.
This is such an easy recipe! I subbed chicken stock instead of water. It is quite spicy so you can cut the crushed red pepper in half. I have made this 3 times already!
The whole family loves this dish! Can’t find the broccoli rabe in the area but turnip greens or mustard greens work as a substitute.
I used this recipe as a reference and changed a few things. I wasn’t able to find broccoli rabe so I’ve used broccoli crowns and spinach. Aside from the sausage links I added in 1/2 ground mild Italian sausage. My bf likes more meat. I’ve also added 1 cup of white wine and let it simmer with the broccoli/spinach and sausage for 2-3 minutes. It was served over spaghetti noodles that were coated in butter (melted butter with minced garlic and red pepper flakes on the stove stop), parmesan, parley, and homemade garlic bread.
This was delicious. I made it as written, except for the amount of pepper flakes (1 tsp.) and used regular broccoli. It was delicious…a definite make-again recipe. I knew my family wouldn’t appreciate that much heat, so scaled it back.
I made it according to directions but used fresh broccoli flowerets instead and added them to the pasta cooking water about two minutes before pasta was done to insure crispy texture. After following recipe the end result was lacking something so I sautéed 6 more minced cloves of garlic in about 1/4 C . extra virgin olive oil and more Parmesan cheese . Results, DELICIOUS ! Thank you I’ll make it this way from now on . ( you can use less olive oil if you prefer)
This recipe turned out way better than expected. So simple and so good. I used regular broccoli but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. I’ll make this over and over again.
I made this recipe, but made the few adjustments. I used asparagus instead of broccoli raab and I had read previous reviews that this recipe was lacking some sauce so I added mushrooms to this along with the sauce it made and the dish turned out awesome! Also, I didn’t use the full box of wheat penne pasta, as it seemed a bit much.
This was truly lacking something from an overall sauce perspective. The sausage was flavorful but everything else sort of just sat there with no real impact. I may try again with some type of light white or red sauce.
This was really good except the meat needed to be doubled or the amount of Penne cut in half. I used mild Italian sausage and halved the peppers. It was still too hot. The flavor was excellent though and I will make it again with the changes I mentioned.
My whole family loved it and went for seconds. I will definitely be making this dish again as it was a big hit.