Red Russian Kale and Turkey Sausage Pasta

Red Russian kale and turkey sausage flavor a tomato cream sauce in this kid-friendly pasta

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I work in a thrift shop, and one of the perks is being able to purchase some of the merchandise before it gets out to the sales floor.  [Another perk is shopping the clearance section before opening hours to find colorful napkins and placemats, interesting kitchen gadgets, and more that you see in my photos.]


I picked up a copy of Giada de Laurentis' Everyday Pasta this way, primarily because when I flipped to the index, looked up kale, and checked out this recipe her headnotes mentioned that it was the only way she'd eat kale as a kid.  Since I have plenty of varieties of kale in our community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share and kids who don't readily eat kale (though they'll eat it in soup and pizza) I figured I'd give this recipe a try.

The original recipe calls for spicy sausage.  My son is the child into spicy foods, so I used some turkey breakfast sausage instead.  My daughter has been the one to snag all of the leftovers of this dish, so I think that the pinch of crushed red pepper was just fine by her.  I used Red Russian kale in this, but it would work with blue curly kale or Lacinato kale as well.

For more recipes using kale, please see my Kale Recipes Collection or my Cooking Greens Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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Red Russian Kale and Turkey Sausage Rotini, adapted from Everyday Pasta (Amazon affiliate link)

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound turkey breakfast sausage links
• ¾ cup spring onions, chopped white and tender green parts only
• 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic or 2-3 cloves fresh or roasted
• 1 quart crushed tomatoes, or a 28 ounce can of peeled tomatoes
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 cups chopped Red Russian kale (stems to the compost)
• ⅓ cup heavy cream
• 1 pound rotini pasta
• grated cheese for serving

Instructions

1. Fill a pretty purple pot (another Amazon affiliate link? are you kidding me?) with water and set it over high heat to come to a boil.  
2. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat, add oil, and cook sausage links until browned on all sides. Remove from skillet and slice into sausage coins, then set aside.  
3. Add onion to the skillet and cook for 5-8 minutes until softened. Add the garlic, tomatoes, seasonings and sausage coins, stir to combine.
4. Once the water is boiling, add the kale and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from boiling water (keep the water going and start the pasta) and add the kale to the skillet.
5. Stir the kale into the sausage-tomato mixture, then reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Cook the pasta until al dente, according to package instructions.
7. When the sauce has finished simmering, remove from heat and stir in cream.  
8. Add drained rotini to the skillet and toss to coat with sauce. Serve with grated cheese.

This post is shared on Simple Supper Tuesday, What's Cookin' Wednesday, Fiesta Friday, the From the Farm Blog Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Hot Fun in the Summertime #2,