Simple Spring Pasta: Wild Mushroom Kale and Sausage over Tagliatelle

 

The other day we found ourselves without any plan of what to make for dinner. Bryan was in the mood for something light, fresh, healthy, and in season. He wandered into Eataly and picked up whatever looked good, and pieced together this delicious pasta dish. Kale is definitely in season now, and it looked great, so that was added to the dish. There was also a wide array of wild mushrooms. He picked up some oyster mushrooms, blue mushrooms, and lobster mushrooms. The sausage was freshly made, so he grabbed some of that. And then of course, the base - fresh, whole wheat tagliatelle seemed like the perfect vessel to carry all of these beautiful ingredients.

So this pasta dish of wild mushrooms, kale, and sausage in a white wine butter sauce was born, and now we'll share it with you. It's a light, quick, and simple dish, but one that really satisfies. The whole wheat pasta actually is an important contributor here as it's earthy flavor adds another layer of complexity to the dish. If you're unable to find wild mushrooms, any mushroom would suffice. Baby portobello's would be great, or shittake, or any other kind. And if you want to leave the sausage out, just add a little extra salt and fennel to make up the difference.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 link sweet Italian pork sausage, removed from casing and crumbled
1 bunch kale, sliced into ribbons
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp chile flakes
1/2 lb whole wheat pasta
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
Pecorino romano to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

When all of your ingredients are chopped up and prepared, melt the butter into a skillet with the olive oil over medium heat. Add in the garlic and chile flakes and cook for a minute until they become fragrant. Then into the pan, add in the mushrooms. Cook them for about 7 minutes. They'll exude their liquid after a few minutes, and at this point, add in the sausage. If at any point the garlic looks like it's getting over cooked, add in a splash of the white wine.

Start boiling the water and add some salt. Continue to cook the mushrooms and sausage until the sausage is browned on all sides. Then add in the remaining white wine and cook everything together until the white wine is reduced by half, 5 - 7 minutes. The sausage should be cooked through at this point, break one of the bigger crumbles open to check.

Once the sausage is cooked through, add in the kale, and stir everything together. Cook until the kale is wilted. Remove from heat.

Cook the pasta until 1 minute shy of the package directions. If you're using fresh pasta, this should only be about 2 minutes. At the 1 minute shy mark, turn on the heat on your sausage kale and mushroom skillet, and add in a hefty ladle of the pasta water. Shake it around so that it gets nicely incorporated and combines with the rest of the sauce.

Add the pasta directly to the skillet with the sausage, kale, and mushrooms, and toss together over medium heat until all of the excess liquid has been absorbed by the pasta. Add more pasta water if needed to get to your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve garnished with grated pecorino romano cheese, and enjoy!









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