Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

I know, I know, Ive been a bad girl. I havent posted a recipe in weeks! Ive been pretty busy with parties and showers and all kinds of things going on. All happy celebrations so I dont mind it. With all the craziness that went on I did remember to snap a photo so I could blog about this wonderful dish. I made this for Steves Aunts Baby Shower last week and everyone liked it which makes me very happy!

Before I go on to post this recipe I just want to say Congratulations Melissa and Salvatore and Congratulations to Dana and Lenny!!! Both couples will be parents for the very first time!!!

Okay so here goes...its really very easy and you can add as much or as little garlic as you like or even use hot sausage or a mixture of sweet and hot. This recipe was written to feed a crowd but you can certainly make this for one pound of pasta and use only one bunch of broccoli rabe and half the amount of sausage. I hope you like it! Id love to hear your variation on this very popular dish so feel free to comment!

Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

Ingredients:

1 lb sweet Italian sausage (6 links)
2 bunches, broccoli rabe
4-5 cloves garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Crushed red pepper, to taste
Salt and peppr
Romano cheese, to taste
2 lbs pasta

Directions:

1. Remove stems from broccoli rabe and discard. Cut into bite sized pieces.
Boil broccoli rabe in a large pot of salted water for about 8-10 minutes. Drain (reserve 2 cups of water) and put into an ice cold water bath to stop the cooking process and set aside.

2. While broccoli rabe is cooking, remove sausage from casing and crumble. Saute sausage in oil with garlic and red pepper, constantly breaking it up. Once sausage is cooked add in broccoli rabe and toss to coat with oil. Let it cook together with a few minutes so the broccoli rabe picks up the flavors. At this point you can refrigerate overnight or until ready to cook the pasta.

3. Boil pasta (chose one that won’t fall apart such as orrechiette, cellantani, cavatappi, etc.) in salted water while reheating sausage and broccoli rabe mixture. Add some reserved water from the broccoli rabe to moisten the mixture. Add cooked pasta and toss while continuing to add more water as needed. It shouldn’t be soupy but should not be dry. Toss with cheese and a little more extra virgin olive oil.

Enjoy!

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Halloween Trick or Treat Broccoli And Spinach Soup Graveyard Fried Rice Plus Apple Banana And Dragon Fruit Smoothie

Halloween is just a week from now and we are so excited about this weekend Angry Bird Halloween Party at Sentosa. For the past two years I have shared some Halloween themed dishes and treats which you could read more here. Although what I did this year was rather simple as compared to last year, but after all we do enjoy the process on preparing the food and etc on a raining cozy evening.

This year, we are having Spooky Broccoli Soup which served together with Graveyard Fired Rice and Bloody Smoothie.

BROCCOLI AND SPINACH SOUP
(Using Cuisinart Hot And Cold Blender)

We do love western cream soup especially Cream of Pumpkin and Cream of Mushroom but I always put it off the menu lists because of the steps plus blending of the soup which I find it too troublesome as compared to our Asian boiled soup.  Till recently when I received an amazing gift from friend which is the new Cuisinart Hot and Cold Blender (read more here) it actually inspired me to cook western soup again.

This innovative blender actually cook and blend soup within a few steps. It is so easy to use and all you required is to add in the necessary ingredients, set the timer, press a few buttons and after which you would enjoy a bowl of delicious soup, porridge or dessert in a breeze.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes |  Cooking: 25 - 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
300g Broccoli, cut into small florets
2 Potatoes (200g), peeled and cubes
50g Spinach Leaves, roughly chopped
1 Small Brown Onion, roughly chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, crushed
1 Knob (15g) Of Butter
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
750ml 7500ml Hot Chicken/Vegetable Stock
1/3 (90g) Cup Greek Yogurt / Light Sour Cream
Some Crusty Bread to Serve

Method:-
1. Place butter and olive oil (butter should be on the heating plate rather than on the blades) in Cuisinart Hot And Cold Blender. Set timer to 25 minutes and melt butter on LOW heat.

2. Add onion, garlic and cook until softened, press the STIR button (on the right side) to stir the mixture regularly to avoid burning.

3. Through the hole on the press-on lid,  add potato, broccoli and hot stock into the glass jug and bring it to boil using HIGH heat. (it takes about 2 - 3 minutes)

4. Change to SIMMER and cook the mixture until the last 2 minutes, add in spinach and continue to cook until end of the cycle.

5. Once everything is cooked, blend on LEVEL 1 until smooth.

6. Pour soup between serving bowls and serve with a dollar of Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream together with crusty bread.

This year our Halloween Spooky Soup is no longer using "pumpkin" but instead we go for something "green" which are Broccoli and Spinach.  Although I love broccoli soup but I have never tried adding spinach in it till this recipe as I wanted to obtain a darker green colour for the soup.

Surprisingly it taste good without that "leafy" taste from the spinach and together with my little boy we also decorated the soup with some Greek yogurt to resemble  spooky ghosts.

GRAVEYARD FRIED RICE
(Using Seahs Singapore Fried Rice Spices)

Since it was a rainy day that evening we decided to have some fried rice to go with the soup instead of the usually spaghetti. And the Seahs Singapore Fried Rice spices that I have comes in handy for this dish as it makes a good seasoning and flavour for the plain rice. And in order to create the Halloween spooky theme, we also decorate the fried rice with sausages, egg , cucumber, jelly worms and etc.

(Serves: 4  | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 Packet of Seahs Singapore Fried Rice Spices
800g Cooked Rice, around 2.5 rice cooker cup uncooked rice
1/2 Cup Frozen Mixed Vegetables
2 Garlic Cloves, crashed
2 Tablespoons Cooking Oil
Some Cooking Wine
Some chopped Spring Onion
12 Japanese Chicken Sausages
4 Eggs

Method:
1. Boiled or Grilled the sausages, set aside. Fry sunny side-up eggs individually and set aside too.

2. Add oil in preheat wok, saute garlic till fragrant before stirring in the mixed frozen vegetables and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add cooked rice and continue to stir-fry for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

4. Gradually add in Seahs spices into the fried rice according to your taste (you might not need the whole packet), stir well, drizzle some cooking wine and continue to stir-fry for another 1/2 minutes.

5. Remove, garnish with prepared sausages, egg and etc shown above. Serve hot.

APPLE AND BANANA SMOOTHIE
(Using Cuisinart Hot and Cold Blender)

As for the beverage of the day, we decided to go for two colour tones smoothie whereby I blend the Apple, Banana and Milk for the white tone and Red Dragon Fruit puree for the purplish red tone. And we love the refreshing fruity combination.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 30 minutes freezing | Blending: 2 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 - 3 Frozen Banana, skin remove and cut into chunks
2 Green Apples, skin removed and cut into cubes
1 Cup (250ml) Fresh Milk
1/4 Cup Ice Cubes, optional
1/2 Red Colour Dragon Fruit(pitaya), skin removed cut into chunks

Method:-
1. Put frozen banana, apple, fresh milk and ice cubes (if using) into the blender jug.

2. Fix the lid on and blend on LEVEL 4 for about 1 minute or until smooth.

3. Fill 4 tall serving glass half full, add some dragon fruit puree (shown below) and continue to fill up the glasses with remaining smoothie.

4. Swirl the mixture and decorate with some Halloween treats and serve immediately.

5. To prepare the Dragon Fruit Puree: Blend half of the Dragon Fruit on LEVEL 4 for 30 seconds or until smooth. Pour into bowl and set aside while preparing the smoothie. 

Till then have a great Halloween Party and do share with us if you have any good ideas on preparing Halloween dishes and bakes too!

"SAVOUR THE GOOD LIFE"
Soup Making Competition

Photo credits to ToTT.

Lastly just to share a quick finding, while searching for more information and cooking tips on this new Cuisinart blender, I happened to read about this Soup Making Competition (here) which is organised by ToTT and  Cuisinart where you could stand a chance to travel to Hong Kong to compete for the grand prize . Sounds good right?

To participate:-
~  First form teams of TWOS;

~ Submit a RECIPE as well as a PHOTO of the soup dish together with both full names, mobile numbers, NRIC numbers, and addresses, via email to pr@tottstore.com by 31 October 2012.

~ Recipes should serve up to 5 portions and must incorporate the use of Cuisinart’s Hot And Cold Blender.

~ It should also take no longer than 45 minutes to prepare.

To find out more about this competition you could visit ToTT Facebook Page for details. Good Luck everyone!

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