Broccoli and Rabe Sausage with Orzo

The other day I ran into Stop & Shop to pick up a few things. I really never shop there so I decided to look around a bit. I found this great broccoli and rabe sausage! I mean look at the colors in the photo below, it just looked so good. I searched Pinterest for some inspiration on sausage dishes but didn't come up with much. I actually really didn't even know what rabe was!
 

(räb) A vegetable plant (Brassica rapa) related to the turnip and grown for its pungent leafy shoots. Also called rapini.
 

I sent myself into the kitchen and came up with this little gem that my husband raved about.

1 lb broccoli and rabe sausage

(or really any sausage if you can't find something like this)

1/2 box cooked orzo

1/2 cup white wine or cooking wine

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp flour

1 cup chicken or beef broth

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1/4 cup chopped onions

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 cups steamed broccoli

Parmesan cheese (to taste)

Cook orzo to package directions and steam broccoli (I did use a Fresh n' Steam package because it was all I had at the time). Chop up the sausage links into about 1 inch pieces and saute over medium heat until thoroughly cooked, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped onion and garlic.

 

I love cooking with garlic and onions, so I buy minced garlic to keep in the fridge and cut up an onion or two at the beginning of the week and keep it in an onion saver to cook with it.

 

Let the oil from the sausage caramelize the onions a bit and then you can begin to assemble your sauce in the pan. Add the oil and stir and then add in the chicken broth. After a few minutes of simmering, add in the wine.

 

I used a Pinot Grigio, which just happened to be the "3 buck Chuck" from Trader Joe's my husband was working on in the fridge at the moment.

 

The last steps are adding the milk and flour to cream up and thicken your sauce. If you don't trust yourself adding the flour directly to the pan and being able to avoid any lumps, mix it ahead of time in the cold milk and then add them. I cooked this sauce as a reduction so I simmered everything for about 10 more minutes on medium-low and then tossed in the broccoli and the orzo. Add some Parmesan cheese to top this and you have one delicious original meal!

 

 

Hindsight:

(My plan is to add tips to my recipes. I tend to experiment a lot and not usually follow recipes so if I discover something along the way in writing these, I'll share the tips here.)

My husband likes everything with "light sauce", so I tend to cook that way. If I make this dish again, I'd like it a bit saucier. I'd up the recipe on everything in the sauce by 50% so you might consider doing that.