Mashed Potatoes with Kale

I know some people have kale fatigue and are sick of hearing about it, but I still enjoy it. So I was very intrigued when I found this Mashed Potato with Kale recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.

I made this dish for the first time for Christmas yesterday and it smells and tastes great! Don't let the kale fool you...I wouldn't call this a healthy dish with all the mascarpone, Parmesan, and butter.

Mascarpone cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano, kale, onions, garlic, unsalted butter

I didn't have enough butter for all of my dishes so I left the butter out when boiling the potatoes (just added butter in the assembly steps). I only had regular chicken stock instead of low-sodium chicken broth, so I cut back the Parmesan to 1/2 c., salt to 1 tsp and black pepper to 1/2 tsp in the assembly steps so the dish wasn't too salty. And it just seems like a lot of salt in the recipe to me, so it's always easier to add salt than take out.

Sweating onions & garlic

Adding cooked kale to mashed potatoes  

The result was creamy mashed potatoes with a twist of texture from the kale. I thought it was still very flavorful even though I cut back on some of the salty ingredients. This recipe makes a LOT and I think you can get more like 8 servings out of it. I took some of the leftovers and divided into big scoops of individual servings, then froze them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Once frozen, I placed them all into a freezer bag. Updated note: I reheated the servings I wanted in a microwave straight from the freezer and thought they were still pretty good for frozen food.

My Rating (out of 5): 5

Orecchiette with Sausage and Kale Recipe

I was craving this pasta dish after seeing a version of it on TV and searched the web for comparable recipes. There weren't as many recipes that turned up to my surprise and none that really grabbed my interest. I found a similar recipe by Michael Symon and made a couple of changes to make the following version. I really enjoyed how the lemon zest and juice added another dimension of flavor. And the butter gives the dish some silkiness.

Orecchiette with Sausage and Kale

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1 Lb orecchiette pasta, preferably DeCecco
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, separated
• 1 Lb sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (if you like more heat, use 1/2 teaspoon)
• 10 - 16 oz Tuscan kale, washed & chopped with stems (1" wide)
• 2 cups pasta water, separated
• 1 tablespoon Lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons Lemon juice
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Italian parsley, finely chopped

Directions

Bring 5 quarts of water to a boil with 3 tablespoons of kosher salt. Cook the pasta until very al dente, about 8 minutes (or 1 minute less than the package instructions for al dente). Stir occasionally to make sure the orecchiette doesn't stick together. Remove the pasta to a bowl with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Do not rinse the pasta. Reserve 3 cups of pasta water before discarding.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large Dutch oven or saute pan over medium high heat. Add the sausage, breaking it into pieces with a wooden spoon, and brown until pink is gone, about 5-6 minutes. Add the kale and red pepper flakes and cook down for 2 minutes.

Add 1 cup of the reserved pasta water and simmer for 1 minute. Add the cooked pasta and simmer until pasta is done, about 2 more minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and zest, cheese, butter, and 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil. Taste and season with additional salt if needed. Plate and sprinkle the parsley on top, then serve.

If you have leftovers, refrigerate the remaining 2 cups of reserved pasta water to use to reheat leftovers the next day. Sprinkle some of the pasta water when reheating, but don't poor too much or the pasta will get soggy. You likely won't use all of the pasta water.

I like to buy pre-chopped kale and Trader Joe's comes in 10 oz. bags. If you buy whole kale leaves in bunches, 3/4 to 1 lb. is fine. You can also use curly kale if Tuscan kale isn't available.

I like to be able to control the spice level so I use sweet Italian sausage and red pepper flakes. However, you could substitute with hot Italian sausage and leave out the red pepper flakes.