Creamy Italian Sausage and Kale Rigatoni
Flavoursome, spiced Italian sausages and kale leaves cooked in a creamy sauce, and stirred through chunky rigatoni pasta, makes for a comforting and delicious and easy weeknight dinner!
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 200 g button mushrooms
- 1/3 bunch kale
- 350 g rigatoni pasta
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500 g Italian sausages pork or beef
- 2 Birds Eye chilli optional
- 250ml cooking/pouring cream
- 125ml reserved pasta cooking water
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Put a pot of water on the stove to boil for your pasta
- Prep your ingredients: finely dice onion, mince garlic cloves, slice mushrooms, slice chilli if using, and remove the stalks from the kale leaves and tear them into smaller bite sized pieces. Seperate the sausage links, and trim one end of each sausage to create a small opening.
- Place your rigatoni into the boiling pot of water and cook for the recommended time on the packet for al dente pasta
- While the pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in in a large saucepan
- Add onion and garlic into the pan with the olive oil and sauté for 2-3 minutes, until onion is translucent and fragrant
- Take a sausage and hold the end of it tightly while you squeeze the filling out of the open end that you cut earlier straight into the pan. Repeat with all sausages.
- Using your wooden spoon, break the sausage into smaller bite sized pieces as it cooks in the pan. Cook for 6-7 minutes until golden and caramelised on the edges of the mince.
- Drain your cooked pasta, but reserve 125ml of the hot pasta water and set aside.
- Add mushrooms, chilli and kale into the pan with the sausages, onion and garlic. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until mushrooms are cooked and kale has wilted into the dish.
- Add pasta to the pan, as well as the cream, reserved pasta water, salt and pepper and stir well and heat through for 2-3 minutes.
- Taste the dish once again and if needed, add more salt and/or pepper to taste