Penne with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe Recipe

Spicy lovers unite! Wow, is this good! I'm so glad I stumbled across this recipe! The only changes I made were to use broccolini instead of broccoli rabe (since my market didn't have any today) and I cut down on the crushed red pepper to about 2 tsp instead of 1 tbsp. It was still plenty spicy and delicious! I also used whole wheat penne and half grated/half shredded parmesan. Next time I probably won't cook up a full box of pasta, because I didn't end up using all of it. I think 2/3 of a box suits our tastes. Hubby warned me before dinner that he wasn't hungry, so he only had me dish up a small portion. Well guess who went back for seconds and thirds! :) A definite keeper!

I used this recipe as a reference and changed a few things. I wasn't able to find broccoli rabe so I've used broccoli crowns and spinach. Aside from the sausage links I added in 1/2 ground mild Italian sausage. My bf likes more meat. I've also added 1 cup of white wine and let it simmer with the broccoli/spinach and sausage for 2-3 minutes. It was served over spaghetti noodles that were coated in butter (melted butter with minced garlic and red pepper flakes on the stove stop), parmesan, parley, and homemade garlic bread.

I used whole wheat rotini and broccoli because I did not have broccoli rabe. It was delicious. I also added fiery diced tomatoes to the skillet with the sausage to make it into more of a sauce. After I removed the skillet with the garlic, red pepper flakes, sausage, and diced tomatoes from the heat, I added some mascarpone cheese to make the sauce a little creamy. Stir the mascarpone cheese with the sausage mixture until incorporated. I highly recommend this dish as a quick dinner! It is a very easy dish to prepare.

Simple, easy and yummy. I have made this twice and was pleased both times. I followed the recipe with a few adjustments. I used 1 lb. bulk mild Italian sausage, 2 bunches broccolini (1 head regular broccoli would also work) and cut the red pepper flakes down to 1 heaping tsp. I also added sun dried tomatoes (canned in oil and halved) and chicken stock in place of the water, and a little white wine. I think the sun dried tomatoes add a lot to the flavor of this dish. I used orecchiette pasta which I think holds up to the crumbled sausage better than penne. Voila. Easy meal.

This was absolutely amazing!!!! I used sweet sausage because that is what I had and used another's suggestion of using chicken broth instead of pasta water so I did not have to time it. Only other thing I changed is that I added the garlic AFTER the broccoli cooked down. If it browns, its bitter...so I added closer to the end. Absolutely positively a keeper!!!!!!

I made it according to directions but used fresh broccoli flowerets instead and added them to the pasta cooking water about two minutes before pasta was done to insure crispy texture. After following recipe the end result was lacking something so I sautéed 6 more minced cloves of garlic in about 1/4 C . extra virgin olive oil and more Parmesan cheese . Results, DELICIOUS ! Thank you I’ll make it this way from now on . ( you can use less olive oil if you prefer)

I was very pleased with this recipe, made a few adjustments including 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes, 1/4 cup green onion, roughly twice the amount of fresh grated parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup pasta sauce. Cut the red pepper to only 1 teaspoon. Turned out great.

I lowered amount of pasta, increased amount of broccoli rabe. Used low sodium chicken broth instead of pasta water in recipe, lowed pepper flakes to one teaspoon, grilled sausage before slicing so nice and charred tasting, tossed in two tablespoons pesto at the end ad mixed. delicious.

It's been a long time since I've done a review and this recipe is great and has good potential. As is, I would give the recipe 4 stars according to my tastes, but it can be easily changed to get 5. I modified my version also; I used one small packet of crushed peppers because that was all I had on hand and it turned out to be a perfect amount of heat. I also used tofurky italian tomato & basil faux sausage as I'm vegetarian. This was good, but I would probably use a different flavor next time, and this has no bearing on my rating, just personal tastes. One change that I think helped a lot was to add about half a cup of some of my own homemade marinara sauce, just to keep everything moist and add a little bit of flavor. Finally, I used a 14 oz. box of whole wheat penne and probably could have been just fine using about 2/3 of a box. Before this I had never had broccoli rabe/rapini and I'm glad it came in my CSA box, it and this recipe are very good, will definitely make again!

I made this today. We like spicy so the red pepper flakes were fine. I did cook sausage in olive oil and cut back a litle on the pasta water. I added additional olive oil for a nice sauce.

I made this with broccoli instead of the rabe, as it wasn't available in our local store. I'm taking time to comment on it because I think that using 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes, as called for, might actually injure people! Omigosh! I cut it back to 1 teaspoon, and we still found it so spicy that many of the people to whom I served it wouldn't eat it. The hot Italian sausage was tasty but the pepper flakes definitely need to be adjusted. I'm a spicy food lover, but I write to caution folks to go light on the pepper flakes. I like a pasta recipe that's not smothered in sauce, so I'd give this another go with a few adjustments.

Is 1 tbsp red pepper a typo? We used 1/2 tsp which was plenty.

Needed a sauce component. Agree with others that there was too much pasta or too little of everything else, needs some tweaking there. I did like the taste. Used broccoli and cauliflower, as was all I had on hand. Will try again with tweaks.

I’m officially hooked on this one.

I really think the T of red pepper flakes has to be a typo. We love spicy food, but even using less than a tsp of it, it was still too hot for most of the family. We also double the Parmesan cheese. Good recipe despite the fire.

Very Easy to make- tasted great

Really yummy! Subbed in asparagus, added a little lemon juice: super good recipe!

This was very good and very spicy. Next time I will use less pasta. It's a keeper!

Not my favorite.

We reduced the amount of red pepper flakes to half and it was just spicy enough! Loved this dish!