Project Description

Spaghetti with Fennel Sausage and Broccoli

brocolli and fennel sausage pasta 330 size

This dish is an adaptation from Carmines that uses one of the Marinara Sauce portions. It has become a family favourite for a weekday meal as well as for entertaining because it is so good!

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 fennel sausages or .5 kg, meat removed from the casing (recommended: 2 hot + 2 sweet sausages, or 4 sweet sausages + 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes)
  • 2 tsp (roughly) chopped garlic
  • 1/4 cup (roughly) chopped Italian parsley
  • 2 tbsp (roughly) chopped basil
  • 4 cups Marinara Sauce (one batch)
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth (boxed broth is fine)
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 8 grinds of pepper
  • 1 large head of broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 3/4 of a package of spaghettini or spaghetti

Difficulty:

Medium

Prep Time:

20 min

Cook Time:

25-30 min

Lead Time:

N/A

Freezer Friendly:

No

Leftover Alert:

N/A

The instructions below take you through preparing the pasta and broccoli mixed in with the sauce as this dish is typically served as one dish.

    1. In a very large pot, add water and 1 tbsp of kosher salt and start the water boiling for the spaghetti.
    2. In another very large, shallow sauce pan (5 litre size or large enough to hold the sauce and spaghetti), heat up the olive oil on medium-high heat.  Add the sausage meat, and using a potato masher or a flat edge wooden spoon, mash the sausage up into small pieces. Cook for 5 minutes then add the garlic and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
    3. Add salt, pepper, parsley and basil and cook for 30 seconds to get the herbs to release their oils and some browning to start on the bottom of the pan.  Add the chicken broth and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Let this cook for 2-4 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by half.

    4. While the sausage and chicken broth mixture is cooking,  add your pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the package instructions. About 2 minutes before the pasta is completely cooked add the broccoli pieces and allow them to cook with the pasta for the last 2 minutes. Don’t worry if the broccoli is still hard as it will continue to cook once mixed in the sauce. Strain the pasta and broccoli and keep to the side until the sauce is ready.

    5. Back to the sauce – with the chicken broth reduced to roughly half, add the marinara sauce and stir.  Continue to cook this sauce for another 7-10 minutes so that it thickens up a little. Remove from the heat, add the parmesan cheese to the sauce and stir.  Take off the heat.

    6. Provided the pasta and broccoli are cooked, add the pasta and broccoli to the sauce one scoop at a time, slowly mixing with the sauce until you have the consistency you desire (we don’t always use all the pasta). Cover and allow the pasta and sauce to sit for a few minutes so that the pasta absorbs some of the sauce. Serve with freshly grated parmesan sprinkled on top.

  

You bet this can be a weeknight meal but it takes a little preparation the night before if you want it to be a stress-free  experience.

The night before, take your Marinara Sauce out of the freezer (if using a frozen portion). If you don’t have a portion of Marinara Sauce prepared then please read the Marinara Sauce recipe and make this at least the night before you want to make this recipe.

As well, chop the garlic and herbs and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Wash and chop up the broccoli and store in a baggie in the refrigerator.

When you get home, simply pull all your prepared ingredients together and you should find that within 30 minutes you have a wonderful spaghetti meal!

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