Orecchiette With Sweet Sausage and Broccoli Rabe Pesto Recipe (2024)

This is a family favorite. I simplify the process by just adding the pesto into the cooked sausage & fennel mixture in the pan and reheating; I don't bother to cram all that hot stuff into my food processor. It also retains more texture of the sausage and onion/fennel, which I like. I also just use a whole onion and a whole fennel bulb, which is usually more than called for.

Is there a link to the dish that you say you prefer?

Would recommend adding a bit more garlic to the recipe, maybe 4-5 cloves and also to add fresh basil at that phase, seems like would enliven the dish. Overall though, very tasty.

This is an odd sauce, the word “pesto” is maybe a little misleading? I think it important to make sure the chicken stock is low sodium, and the recipe might benefit from the addition of pine nuts. It certainly benefits from some red pepper flakes. Mine did not look like the photo, despite following the recipe to a T, but more the issue was how distinctly pork-y this was. Maybe would be better as a vegetarian sauce with cooked sausage coins thrown in separately.

WOW. This was delicious and one of the best things that we have made in a long time. While the ingredient list/recipe appears deceptively simple, the whole thing took quite a lot of time and cooking temperatures were way off. Cooked fennel and onion on medium (used whole ones), and the sausage on almost med-high. Brought everything to a boil once the stock was added and it still took a LONG TIME to reduce. Used 1 lb of pasta (1.25 lbs, c'mon!) and saved the extra sauce in the freezer. #worthit

I’ve made this twice, and it’s very good. Worth noting that cooking down the stock until it glazes the sausage takes about 30 mins. If you’re timing with pasta you’ve got plenty of time after you add the stock.

This was just ok. Five minutes of boiling robbed the broccoli rabe of its flavor, it was too rich, I found the texture of the sausage unpleasant, and making it was laborious. Traditional orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage (one of my favorite dishes) is worlds better and simple to make.

Added an extra clove of garlic to pesto. Also cut sausage into coins and cooked before adding onion and fennel, then added back in. Used bouillon because I had no stock, turned out great. Make sure to check salt levels, try to use low sodium stock/bouillon. Could benefit from some red pepper flakes.

I followed the recipe and it was delicious. Pesto means paste, and that's exactly what this sauce is, if you follow the recipe. I used a high quality butcher's sausage and imported pasta, that's sold in 250g packages. It makes a difference. I didn't want a traditional basil pesto for dinner, so no pine nuts or basil for me, nor did I want Orecchiette con Salsiccia e Cime di Rapa, a regular in my house, which is a much quicker, textured pasta. I'll definitely make this again, as is.

Made this with plant-based sausage and veggie stock, delish!

No fennel, used 14 oz impossible sausage, about 5 oz prepared pesto, 1 lb pasta

Big hit! However as others have noted it takes a bit longer than the recipe instruction’s 45 minutes. To save time, either prep chopped ingredients ahead or skip the food processor for the sausage.

It’s delicious but as others have noted, the cook time is off. I think steps 1 and 2 can be reversed, and that the broccoli rabe can be prepped and combined with the garlic the while the stock added to the fennel, onion and sausage mixture is reducing.

This was very very good. Like another reviewer suggested, start with the sausage first and then you can do the broccoli rabe while that’s cooking. For me personally, I will cook the garlic with the onions as it was still very strong for me. And I don’t like fennel so I eliminated but that’s a personal choice. Next time I might finish with a bit of lemon juice for some brightness. Overall, I really liked this dish.

LOVED this recipe but it took a lot longer than 45 minutes. Agree with one comment that the chicken stock takes about 30 minutes to cook down and suggest starting the pasta water about 1/2 of the way through. Note also that you will still have to blend the pork/fennel mixture, so time accordingly.

We cook quite a lot (of NYT recipes) and this was one of the best things we've made in a while. I think the added processing of the meat adds a lot, helping to emulsify the fats and intensifying the flavor. It takes a long time to reduce then cool acceptably before grinding. Personally I enjoyed the smooth texture. Orecchiette also held the sauce in a really nice way. We used a "hot" (mildly so) Italian sausage and that might be better than truly mild, one could do 50:50.

This was delicious! Wonderful as is, but also versatile: when I couldn’t find broccoli rabe I used baby broccoli and dandelion greens for the pesto, and it was excellent.

Add butter before adding the pasta. You won’t regret it.

I couldn’t find broccoli rabe at the farmers market, so I used Gai long, which is a little sweeter, and it came out very tasty. I also blended only third of the sausage mixture to leave some chunks of sausages for better texture and it came out great. Added lemon zest and a little bit of juice at the end. Will make again.

Yes it takes awhile to cook down broth; I’ll use less next time.

I agree with grptcooker, this isn’t a pesto — isn’t it more of a green ragu? I made this for a solo relaxing Sunday night dinner….not quite, but it is worth the work. A few timings would make the recipe more user friendly - as was noted it does take at least 30 minutes for it to cook down after the stock is added to the sausage. Also no need for a food processor, my immersion blender worked just fine. I kept the ragu / pesto separate from the pasta for storage, and didn’t add pasta water.