Stinging Nettle Tagliatelle with Hot Sausage

This is the kind of pasta you throw together on a Wednesday night and wonder why you ever bother with anything fancier.

Hot Italian sausage with fennel seeds gets rendered until golden and crispy, then finely chopped kale wilts into the rendered fat with a splash of chicken stock. The tagliatelle cooks in about a minute, gets tossed straight into the pan, and everything gets a generous shower of sharp, salty pecorino.

It’s rustic, it’s fast, and it’s packed with the kind of bold, porky, peppery flavor that makes you want to eat standing over the stove before it even hits the bowl.

Kitchen Tips

• Render the sausage slowly at first. Low heat draws out the fat without burning, and that rendered fat is what flavors the entire dish.
• Chop the kale fine so it wilts quickly and doesn’t overwhelm the pasta with big, chewy leaves.
• Save a cup of pasta water before draining. If the sauce looks tight when you toss everything together, a splash of starchy pasta water loosens it up and helps the pecorino cling to every strand.
• Use real pecorino Romano, not pre-grated. Freshly grated melts smoother and tastes sharper.

Variations

• Nettle Tagliatelle: If you can find fresh stinging nettle pasta from a specialty shop, use it here. The earthy, grassy flavor of the nettles plays beautifully against the spicy sausage.
• Broccoli Rabe Swap: Replace the kale with broccoli rabe for a more bitter, intensely Italian bite.