Pasta Whirls with Broccoli and Sausage

Cellentani con Broccoli e Salsiccia
This dish is something that I came up with due to circumstances – I had broccoli that were ready to expire in the frig, and a ring of some of that delicious parsley and cheese sausage from the Landi store in Brooklyn. Since I keep plenty of dried pasta in the house, the cellentani pasta (pasta whirls), one of my favorite pasta shapes, drew my attention. There it was before hungry eyes – a marriage between the sausage and cellantani and an instant adoption of grown-up broccoli just waiting to be loved! It’s amazing what love will create in the kitchen. And the rest of the story, as the late Paul Harvey would ask?
Well, they all lived happily ever after in my stomach, but they will come back again to visit!
Ingredients for 2-3:

¾ lb of dried cellentani pasta

1¼ lbs broccoli (you can use frozen)

1 lb ring Italian sweet sausage, de-cased

½ glass or more of white wine

2 toes garlic, minced

1 medium onion, diced fine

Sea salt to taste

Peperoncino piccante tritato (optional)

Extra-virgin olive oil
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano, to sprinkle on pasta, if desired

Preparation:

Clean and cook the broccoli for about 10 minutes in salted water. Remove from flame and drain, reserving the broth for future use another day. When cooled, break the broccoli up into small pieces.
In the meantime prepare a soffrito with olive oil (enough to cover pan and then some), garlic, and onion; at this point add the broken up sausage to brown and then the wine to capture that good stuff on the bottom of the pan – let the wine mostly evaporate.
At that point add the broccoli and cook it 15-20 minutes on a very low flame.
In the meantime put a pot of water on the stove to boil for the cellentani. Place the pasta into the boiling water. When it’s barely al dente, drain the pasta and place it into the pan with the broccoli. You may also add the peperoncino piccante tritato if desired. Cook for 3-4 minutes, mixing well.
When done, serve onto plates, sprinkling with Parmigiano Reggiano if desired. Some prefer not sprinkling the cheese – they wish to safeguard the flavors of the other ingredients. You have to make that decision yourself! For me it's delicious either way.
Mangia bene!