My husband is waging a silent little battle with me. It’s not about money, laundry, or other typical marital issues. This is about pasta – and he seems to be taking the battle very seriously.I returned from a trip to New York last week to find this on my pasta shelf – three huge boxes of plain white rigatoni pasta. I try hard to eat well – and feel that it’s not a big sacrifice to go with whole wheat pasta. But no. He insists on buying, what now appears to be, large quantities of this and squeezing me out of any shelf space for anything but.Well he wasn’t around last week one night, so I pulled out my little box of whole wheat penne, “stole” one of his spicy Italian sausages from the freezer, and whipped up a delightful little dinner for myself – made better because of the the chewiness of the whole wheat pasta. Score one for me in our little pasta battle!
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 ounces spicy Italian sausage
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 2 ounces whole wheat penne pasta, cooked and drained (reserve some pasta water)
- ¼ cup shredded Gruyere cheese
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, to taste
- Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking apart with a wooden spoon, until it's no longer pink. Add broccoli and a splash of water, and cover for a couple of minutes. Add cooked pasta and come of the reserved pasta water to make a light sauce. Stir in Gruyere cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.