This recipe involves green radicchio, which is a bitter green. If you’ve ever grown or want to know how to grow radicchio, it can be very easy or a little complicated depending on how you grow it. Of course, most people know radicchio as a gorgeous purple and white green that can be eaten either raw or cooked. To achieve that same radicchio in the garden involves blanching the heads, typically in cool weather, by bundling the heads together or covering them as they grow. If you don’t do these things, you end up with just a bitter, leafy green which is also delicious raw or cooked but completely different than the radicchio most of you know and love.

Here’s a shot of what my Rossa Di Treviso radicchio looks like when it hasn’t been blanched:

Totally not what you think of when you think of radicchio, is it? But I seriously love it like this and I certainly love that it’s maintenance-free in the garden. This pasta dish highlights the bitterness of radicchio by balancing it with savory Italian sausage but also mellows its flavor out a bit with a quick blanching first, which I do via using the pasta water as the blanching water with a colander that fits into one of my large pans with a cover.

Sausage and Radicchio Fettuccine Recipe

• 5-6 cups roughly chopped green or red radicchio – (or bitter green of your choice)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 lb. dried fettuccine (or pasta of your choice, but make it a hearty one)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, separated in half
• 1 lb Italian sausage, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• 2-3 large cloves garlic, chopped (I prefer my garlic a little chunky in this)
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

• Bring a large pot of water and salt to a boil – you’re going to use this water for blanching your radicchio and for cooking your pasta.
• When water is boiling, place chopped radicchio greens into a colander and place over/into the water. If your colander sits inside the pan of water, cover pan and steam until all of the radicchio is wilted, about 1-2 minutes. If the colander sits over the pan, steam it, tossing with tongs every 20 seconds or so until all of it is wilted.
• Drain the radicchio and set aside.
• Add fettuccine to water and cook for 10 minutes or according to package directions.
• In the meantime, in a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil until shimmering.
• Add sausage chunks and saute until brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
• Using a slotted spoon, remove sausage from pan to a plate and set aside.
• Drain excess grease from pan but don’t scrape out the crusty bits.
• Return pan to stove over medium heat and heat remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
• Add shallots and garlic and stir constantly until golden, about 3-5 minutes.
• Add chicken stock and stir well, scraping up all of the crusty bits from the bottom of the pan until you have a golden sauce.
• Return sausage and radicchio to the pan and toss well.
• Using tongs, add fettuccine straight from the water to the sausage and radicchio mixture and toss the pasta in, coating it with the sauce.
• Cook 1-2 minutes until pasta is cooked al dente.
• Remove from heat and plate, topping with freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated Parmesan.

Enjoy!

This is honestly one of my favorite pasta recipes. I switch this up in a number of ways depending what I have on hand. I often substitute the radicchio for arugula or rapini (broccoli rabe) and the sausage can be substituted with ground turkey or chicken if you’re trying to keep things a little healthier.

If you want to omit the meat altogether and make this a vegetarian pasta dish, you can omit the sausage and double the greens – trust me, it works! I love a spicy or bitter green with pasta.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are well fed for the week ahead. Mangia!