italian foodies

It’s a busy time in the italian foodie house at the moment as we’re doing a mini renovation in La Cucina, we have to close for a couple of days in November for the building works so there’s lots of organising and stress at the moment but hopefully it will be worth it. I’m really looking forward to it as we will have a much better seating area rather than  a take-away with a few uncomfortable stools and become more like a mini restaurant, we’re still restricted by space but we hope to make better use of what we have. We plan to get a wine license and do a lot more of the food that you see here on the blog so exciting times ahead.

I’m sticking with my southern Italian theme with today’s pasta recipe. I love this dish, I prefer to use young broccoli but find it quite hard to get my hands on any so regular broccoli is fine too.

what you need for 2:

 - 2 italian sausages with skin removed.

 - 200g broccoli stems trimmed

 - 350g dried orecchiette

 - 1 garlic clove peeled

 - 1 chilli finely chopped or dried chilli flakes

 - 1/2 small red onion finely chopped.

 - 25g grated pecorino cheese or parmesan is fine too.

 - 3 tbsp olive oil

 - sea salt and black pepper

what to do:

 - cook your broccoli in a pot of salted boiling water for about 2 mins and drain.

 - heat your olive oil in a pan and cook your garlic until coloured, remove and leave your oil cool for a couple of mins.

 - add your onions and cook for 5-10 mins over a low heat until softened, add your chilli and cook for about 2 mins.

 - bring a pot of water to the boil while your onions are cooking, add lots of salt and your pasta and cook until al dente.

- add your sausage to your pan and cook for 10 mins until coloured.

 - add your cooked broccoli, season and toss over the heat until the broccoli is hot.

 - add the broccoli and sausage mixture to your pasta and serve with lots of pecorino cheese.

 buon appetito…..