• Blog
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Tips & Tools
  • International LOVE
  • Love Notes
  • Shop
  • Powered by MSI Media Group

Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

The fettuccine recipe

July 28, 2012 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

UPDATE: Thanks to Jenny Dechico for helping us find a new and improved name for this dish!

There was an article in the NY Times a week or two ago about the wonderful fresh bounty available now at farmer’s markets and because everything looks so good, the propensity to overbuy and then how do you store and use so many vegetables? I confess I am guilty of this, and because I am the daughter of a mother who grew up during the Great Depression, (and not to mention our own depression now), I hate to waste food.

So I made this one dish pasta meal, chock loaded with vegetables. I was going to make this a meatless meal until I discovered a little bit of spicy chorizo and some sweet sopressata that needed to be used up as well. I loved incorporating the dried sausages. First of all, when you sauté them, you release the fat from the meat so use just a tiny bit of olive oil and that sausage fat adds a lot of flavor! Also, I personally loved the chewy texture the dried meats provided – different and delicious. Now I just threw this dish together on Wednesday evening and we were ravenous so I’m sorry to say I did not measure or weigh the ingredients, but I did take pictures along the way! I hope you like this dish as much as we did.
Fettuccine with garlic, eggplant, broccoli, tomatoes, sausage, and pecorino romano cheese on a white plate.

FARMER’S MARKET PASTA WITH SAUSAGES AND PECORINO ROMANO CHEESE

– serves 4 – 6 as a main course

1 tbs. olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium-sized eggplant, cut in 1/2” slices, each slice cut in 1/2” strips
Peanut oil
Fine sea salt
Coarse sea salt
1 head of broccoli rabe, ends trimmed, thoroughly washed and cut in 2” pieces
7 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered or cut in 6th’s, then cut in 1/2” pieces
4” piece of spicy chorizo quartered lengthwise, and then sliced 1/4” thick
3” piece of sweet sopressata, sliced 1/8” thick and then each slice cut into 4 strips
Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated to taste
1 lb. dried fettuccine
4 – 6 tbs. pasta water

Okay, so this may seem like a lot for you to do but a lot of these things can happen concurrently and it really is easy.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place your cut eggplant in a colander in a single layer and salt generously with fine sea salt. Stack additional layers of eggplant and salt on top of each layer. Let sit and drain for at least 20 minutes or longer. This takes the bitterness out.

Put about a tablespoon of peanut oil on a rimmed baking pan. Spread all over with a small paper towel. Pat dry each piece of eggplant and put on the prepared pan with space in between. Place on the lowest rack in your oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the bottoms are nicely browned.

When it is done, scrape off with a metal spatula and place on a plate.

Meanwhile, place the broccoli rabe in a large pot. Cover with cold water, and salt with coarse sea salt. Place the pot on high heat. As soon as you start to see bubbling along the edge of the pan, remove the broccoli rabe with a slotted spoon to a strainer or colander. DO NOT DRAIN THE POT, You will use this water to boil the pasta in a little bit.

Cut your tomatoes and put in a bowl. Salt with fine sea salt. Toss and let sit.

Heat 1 tbs. olive oil in a large skillet. Put the minced garlic in and sauté on very low heat for 5 minutes.

Have your sausages and grated cheese ready.

Add the sausages to the garlic and oil, raise the heat to medium and sauté for 6 minutes more. Add the broccoli rabe and toss and cook through until tender.

Reboil the broccoli rabe water, adding more if necessary. Boil the fettuccine 2 minutes less than the package instructions and then test to your liking. I like it al dente. Save some pasta water. Drain the pasta.

Put half of the fettuccine, half of the eggplant, half of the tomatoes, half of the broccoli rabe /garlic/sausage mixture, some cheese and 2 -3 tbs. pasta water together in a large bowl and toss. Finish with the remaining ingredients. Toss thoroughly to combine. Serve and top with more cheese if needed.

Salted eggplant in a colander.

Salted eggplant strips draining – removes bittterness

Broccoli rabe in a pot.

Parboiling broccoli rabe – removes bitterness

Salted tomatoes in a bowl.

Chopped, salted plum tomatoes

Garlic cloves on a wooden cutting board.

Garlic!

Chopped sausages on a wooden cutting board.

Sausages

Romano cheese on a wooden cutting board.

Pecorino Romano cheese – I just used the piece on the right

Broccoli rabe, sausage and garlic in a skillet.

Broccoli rabe, sausages and minced garlic sauteing

Related

You might also like:

  • Pork with Ginger, Spring Onions and Eggplant – An Ottolenghi Recipe - on a white platter.Pork with Ginger, Spring Onions and Eggplant – An Ottolenghi Recipe
  • Pasta with Pancetta, Chicken, Pecorino and Broccoli Rabe in a white bowl in the sunlight.Pasta with Pancetta, Chicken, Pecorino and Broccoli Rabe – A HANGOVER HELPER!
  • My eggplant tart.Eggplant Tarts Make a Great Tuscan Starter Dish
  • Spaghetti squash with roasted eggplant, fresh zucchini, capers, and Italian Tuna - finished dish in white soup bowls.Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Eggplant, Fresh Zucchini, Capers & Italian Tuna
  • Quick Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tuna, olives and slow roasted tomatoes in a white bowl.Quick Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tuna, Olives & Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: broccoli rabe, chorizo, eggplant, fettuccine, minced garlic, pecorino Romano, plum tomatoes, roasted eggplant, soprassata, The New York Times

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Security check- *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. Food Follower says

    August 15, 2012 at 7:47 PM

    This looks delicious!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      August 16, 2012 at 11:05 AM

      Thank you! It really was – you should try it!

      Reply
  2. Jenny Dechico says

    May 31, 2013 at 11:12 AM

    hi hi! sorry, was looking for an eggplant recipe and saw this. I know it’s an old post but name-wise, what about “Farmer’s Market Pasta with Chorizo and Pecorino Romano Cheese”?

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      May 31, 2013 at 11:43 AM

      Hi!! Great idea – but really there’s more sopressata in the recipe than Chorizo. So how about a little tweak – Farmer’s Market Pasta with Sausages and Pecorino Romano Cheese?

      If you’re looking for an eggplant recipe did you see https://lovethesecretingredient.net/2013/04/28/vegetable-lasagna-with-no-pasta/ It’s a great dish, but yet another one in need of a better name!

      Reply
      • Jenny Dechico says

        June 3, 2013 at 7:05 PM

        love that!! works perfectly for a Monday night dinner! lol, I have the same problem when I try to come up with names for dishes I make…usually it defaults to “uh…chicken with some stuff in it……”. XD

        Reply
        • Mary Frances says

          June 3, 2013 at 10:15 PM

          🙂 🙂

          Reply

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Join 32k+ followers!


Never miss out on a recipe!

Subscribe to receive new posts via email:

Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

Summer Favorites

Easy Cheesy Sautéed Squash The Best Potato Salad Super Quick Chicken and Summer Vegetables Stir-fry Chimichurri-ed Wilted Endives with Walnuts Chilled Curried Zucchini Soup with Apple Garnish Best Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp to make now!

Categories

  • Appetizers
  • Breakfast
  • Brunch
  • Cocktails
  • Contest
  • Cookies
  • Cookware and tools
  • Desserts
  • Dinner
  • Events
  • First Course
  • Fish
  • Food Responsibility
  • Guest Post
  • Lunch
  • Meat
  • Pasta
  • Poultry
  • Products for sale
  • Salads
  • Sauces
  • Sides
  • Soups
  • Tea time
  • Travel
  • Vegetables

Pages

Blog
About
Recipes
Tips and Tools
International Love
Love Notes
Shop
Mary's secret ingredients

Blogs We Love

  • 1840 Farm
  • A Pug in the Kitchen
  • Cottage Grove House
  • Food, Photography & France
  • Food52
  • From the Bartolini Kitchens
  • Go Bake Yourself
  • Hotly Spiced
  • Jovina Cooks Italian
  • Lavender and Lime
  • Orgasmic Chef
  • Smitten Kitchen
  • Sophie's Foodie Files
  • Steven’s Wine and Food Pairings
  • That Skinny Chick Can Bake
  • The Pioneer Woman
  • The Squishy Monster
  • Tips on Food and Drinks
  • Yummy Chunklet
  • LOVE - the secret ingredient


  • GET IN TOUCH
  • E mary@lovethesecretingredient.com

· All Rights Reserved ·© 2016 Love- the secret ingredient. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | Privacy Policy Disclosure Policy Terms & Conditions