Italian sausage and rapini orecchiette

Remove the rapini stems, cut it into one inch pieces and blanch in a big pot of salty boiling water for 30 seconds.

Scoop the rapini out with a spider onto paper towels in a bowl to dry, and set it aside to cool.

Drop the orecchiette into the same pot.

Heat a large nonstick pan over medium high with a long squiggle of olive oil and brown the two Italian sausages.

Smash the sausage down for two to three minutes until it is broken into half inch pieces or smaller.

Add the blanched rapini and toss to sizzle off the moisture and deglaze the sausage bits stuck to the pan.

After about eight minutes, when the pasta has a little bite left, add half a cup of pasta water to the pan and lift the pasta in with a spider.

Add the stick of butter and toss thoroughly to emulsify it with the water.

Off the heat, add the grated Parmesan and toss a few more times so it melts in without going grainy.

Pile into a low pasta bowl and top with grated Parmesan, cracked black pepper and red chili flake.