Early Thanksgiving: pasta with greens and sausage

No, this is not a recipe for roast turkey or anything else like that . It is a recipe, connected to giving of thanks, pure and simple.
In three days, for the first time in my life, I will be having surgery. It's supposed to be routine, easy surgery, it's outpatient, and everyone whom I know who has had it, has told me it's nothing.

And I am scared to death. There is no other way to describe it. I am scared to death. Of the surgery itself, and the recovery period.

Of the recovery period, I will be "Dis" abled from cooking and other things, for a while. And that is where the giving of thanks comes in, in part. The rest comes in response to the support I have received for my fears.

My friends are cooking for me. I am overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed by much around this, like the prayers from people far away (this means YOU, Bobby D, YOU Frank M , YOU Crystal W, and your daughters, YOU Kim C, Sandra B and Eric C, YOU, all of you members of the Swindells-Peck Central NY syndicate), and close by. I can't name everyone in here. You know who you are.

I would like to think - in fact I hope I'm right - that the "boomerang effect" is working, and that I'm getting back what I put out. And if it's true, I've been putting out a lot more good than I thought I did. From David R's first toast, after my diagnosis of "here's to it not being serious," to the planning before and after the surgery, to the support everyone has given to my partner Guy. My words are failing me now, because I am too full from all the love.

The first night, my wonderful friend Keith is going to cook dinner. Let me just say that Keith is living proof of there being a higher intelligence. There is absolutely no reason that he and I should have met, or that we would have become, not friends, but FRIENDS. But we did. Who was watching and made this happen? I could say that about many others in my life, and I will, in days to come, but let me focus on Keith on this one.

Last year, on Labor Day, Keith made Guy and I this dish. It is a modification of a dish that is described in Alice Waters' cookbook, "The Art of Simple Food." I have shown Keith how to do a few dishes. The way he prepares this one, shows that he "gets it." He did NOT stick to the recipe, but he stuck to the spirit of it. And it's delicious. And I am looking forward to it very much. He taught me to make it, and now, we're going to teach you.

You start with a bunch of something green. Kale, chard, broccoli rabb, even spinach would work. I think broccoli probably would, but don't go to that one on this dish. Try to stick to something leafier. We've used kale, and we're going to use chard. Alice calls for cooking the greens in salted water and putting them aside. I don't recall Keith doing that, and neither would I. Rather, just chop them fine, and put them aside.

Now, get a few tablespoons of olive oil hot in a frying pan, and add a pound of sausage, cut into small pieces. We used lamb merquez sausage the first time, and Keith is using sweet lamb sausage this time around. Alice just calls for sausage, and calls upon you to take the meat out of the casing and cook it. You can, if you want to, but I think it's nicer the way Keith did it, with chunks of sausage. Cook them in the hot oil for about 6 minutes, and while it's cooking, slice up an onion, thin, and toss it into the fat after you've cooked and removed the sausage. Let that cook for about five minutes, and add your greens. They will cook down real fast.

While this is happening, get a big pot of water to the boil and add salt. Then add a pound of a shaped pasta. We used fusilli, or farfalle the last time (I forget which). This time, we'll use farfalle, or orecchiete, or another shape. This is the cook's choice. Cook this to al dente - you know how to do that, ragazzi, and drain it.

Decide which pot will make it easier for you to combine the sauce with the pasta, and then use it to mix the two of them together. Add a bit more olive oil if you want, and perhaps a shake or two of fresh ground black pepper. Just before you serve it, add some pecorino romano cheese to the top of it, if you like (I do. So does Keith). And serve it forth.

This will be reminiscent to those of you of a southern Italian bent, as the classic dish from Calabria, of broccoli rabb, orecchiete, and sausage if you were rich, or no sausage, if you weren't. And indeed, I think that ultimately, it is a variation on the idea of "pork and greens" which we've seen show up many times in this blog.

Cooking for friends is wonderful. When your friends cook for you, it's even better. Thank you, Keith, and thank all of you. We'll all keep our fingers crossed, and if you don't think I'll feel your presence under the anesthesia, you're wrong.