My First 5 in 5: Orecchiete with Sausage and Kale

I am a big fan on The Chew. Whenever I am working from home, I try to catch at least the last 30 minutes (after my walk) or catch the show at the gym.  Darn noontime workouts.

Of the five hosts, Michael Symon is probably our favorite. I first saw Chef Symon in Iron Chef America. I love his personality and of course the wonderful dishes that he creates. My husband also loves his laugh; it is so infectious.

When I found out that Chef Symon has a new book on "5 in 5" dishes, I knew I had to get it. The concept of "5 in 5" is "five fresh ingredients plus some already in your pantry prepared in five minutes". Bonus is that it is under $5 per serving. This is perfect for a working person who does not have time to prepare dinner during the weeknight. Not only we get an insight on his thought process, but I am hoping we can get yummy dinners in no time: definitely a win-win.

I browsed through the recipes and what caught my eye was Oricchiete with Sausage and Kale (page 45). I love kale and combining it with pasta and protein seems to be a balanced meal.

A sign came last Friday for me to make this dish: my husband came home with a pack of spicy turkey sausage, Having had sandwiches most of the week, I was not in the mood for another sandwich, However, I did remember that I bought Orecchiete last week and we have most of the ingredients on hand including kale. It was meant to be.

In the interest of not violating any copyright laws and perhaps increasing Chef Symon’s book sales (not that he needs it, the book is already number one in Amazon’s list), I will not publish the recipe on this post. I did make some changes. I did not have fresh pasta so I had to adjust for that. Since we love garlic and some heat, I added three cloves of garlic and a dash or two of cayenne (to make the sausage spicier).

It turned out to be more like 5 in 20 minutes, but it was okay. I had a really hard week, and cooking was meditative and relaxing.

My husband loved this recipe. I halved the recipe and it is all gone! Definitely something that we will make again!

Thanks Chef Symon. My next 5 in 5 maybe coming soon!