Pasta with Cabbage and Sausage (carbonara style!)
A happy mash-up of two beloved Italian pastas that happen to mesh beautifully together. Feel free to sub any long noodle you like, as well as green cabbage for the red. Mild sausage works just as well.
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed and for drizzling
- 1 pound spicy Italian sausage in bulk, or links with the casings removed
- 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 3/4 pound angel hair pasta (see note)
- Kosher salt for the pasta water
- 5 cups finely shredded red or green cabbage (about half of a small-to-medium head of red cabbage)
- 1 teaspoon crushed chili flakes or 1 small red or green chili, thinly sliced (optional)
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup grated pecorino or parmesan cheese, divided
Â
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, deep-sided skillet over medium high heat. Add the sausage, ensuring it’s all in an even layer. Let the sausage get really browned and crusty before turning or stirring it. Cook the sausage through (takes about 5 minutes total) and, using a slotted spoon or fish spatula, transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Leave the drippings in the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and toast the garlic for about a minute in the drippings. Transfer those to the plate with the sausage.
- Add the cabbage and the chili (if using). You can add a little olive oil, if needed. Cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted and very tender; about 10 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente, about 2 minutes less than the package instructions. When it’s done, reserve 1 cup of the starchy cooking water. Transfer the pasta to the pan with the spicy cabbage (I like tongs for this job).
- In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, egg, about half of the pecorino or parmesan, ½ teaspoon salt, and LOTS of freshly cracked black pepper (a tablespoon or so). Add ½ cup of the reserved pasta water, whisking as you do. With the heat off under the pasta, add the egg sauce and toss enthusiastically to get everything nice and coated (again, tongs work best here). When it’s all steaming and hot, the sauce should be thickened and where you want it to be. You can add a little more pasta water to loosen and thin out the sauce, if needed.
- Add the sausage and crispy garlic to the pasta and toss toss toss. Serve the pasta with more cheese on top and a drizzle of olive oil to finish, if desired.
Notes
Okay, so I often call for 3/4 pound of pasta in my recipes, as I tend to cook/write recipes for four people and that’s just the right amount of pasta for most recipes. A pound tends to make things too “pasta heavy” and I like a ratio of more half pasta to half other things (veggies, proteins, etc.). So! I cordon off about 1/4 pf each bag or box of pasta that I’m cooking with and then package that back up, waiting until I’ve got another 3/4-pound’s worth and then away we go again, ad infinitum.Â