The base of the recipe is from a one pan orecchiette online recipe which was: 1 yellow onion, olive oil, hot italian sausage, orecchiette, low sodium chicken broth, arugula, and optionally add parm after cooking. Maybe one or two other things. I added mushrooms, dried tomatoes, parmesan towards the end of cooking to thicken the unabsorbed chicken broth, garlic powder, onion powder, and red pepper flakes. I think it needs more acidity, the tomatoes didn’t do much of anything unless they’re in your spoonful. Any ideas/tips on what to add? I do like marinated mushrooms so I’ll probably swap the plain mushrooms for those as they generally, as I’ve seen, have lemon juice in them. Basil would also probably add a nice flavor.
I do really like the dish I’ve made as it is, but everything that is great still has room to improve.
by Zestyclose-Match5131
14 Comments
If you want more acid in a dish like this? I think you have a few options:
> Swap Parmesan for pecorino, feta, any more “acidic” cheese.
> Balsamic vinegar is the obvious option.
> Hear me out on this, apples? It’s certainly more northern Italian and would pair well with the Parmesan.
Personally I wouldn’t do basil with this, especially since you used dry ingredients. Try Oregano or parsley instead. Alternatively try using fresh garlic and fresh chilis. Fresh vegetables add a lot of flavors that would help “brighten” the dish.
Add kale or arugula toward the end of cooking. Let it cook just enough to wilt the greens.
For more acidity, add lemon juice, or tomato paste.
Looks awesome
You’re pretty close to this recipe: https://food52.com/story/25711-braised-greens-beans-pasta-off-script-with-sohla.
It has lots of greens wilted in, which cuts the richness a lot. Also more fresh garlic.
I think a touch of white wine vinegar would also be a good choice if you want a bit of acid, but the food52 recipe is quite good as is.
I would actually also skip the dried tomatoes because to me it’s adding more salty umami, which you already have a decent amount of.
I like to add fennel to the sausage and brown the sausage, set aside and add back later. I love the flavor of fennel in browned sausage. Each bite of sausage in the pasta will be a flavor bomb
Sherry vinegar and/or whole grain mustard.
This is not a criticism, just a comment but this is the difference between American style cooking and Italian style cooking. In Italy they’d use like three ingredients with pasta like this. Americans are like “I used this recipe and it only had a few ingredients so I added a ton of extra stuff and I’m still not happy with it. What else can I throw in?”
Something acidic looks heavy.
Some lemmon zest added at the very end, before plating?
add some herbs on top like oregano or basil
Lao gan ma crispy chili in oil + lemon juice
White wine, broccoli rabe, garlic, lemon zest, basil, toasted bread crumbs, dollop of ricotta, etc
The “obvious” addition in terms of Italian tradition is broccoli rabe, but this is so far detached from the tradition that I don’t know anymore if it would fit 😀
Parmigiano