Name: Salsiccia e Friarielli
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 600 g Italian pork sausages; 800 g broccoli rabe; 4 tbsp olive oil; 4 garlic cloves, sliced; ½ tsp chilli flakes; ½ tsp salt

Salsiccia e Friarielli

Italian pork sausage fried with bitter broccoli rabe, garlic and chilli, a Neapolitan supper ready in 30 minutes.

30 min total Serves 4 servings Easy

Making Salsiccia e Friarielli Ahead

Keeps for 2 days in the fridge.

How to Make Salsiccia e Friarielli

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Trim the broccoli rabe and blanch in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and dry well.
Brown the sausages in 1 tablespoon of the oil in a wide pan for 10 minutes, turning. Lift out.
Add the remaining oil, garlic and chilli to the pan for 1 minute, then the greens and the salt. Cook for 6 minutes, turning.
Return the sausages for 2 minutes and serve.

A Few Pointers

Blanch the greens to take the edge off the bitterness.
Dry them well before frying.
Use the sausage fat for the garlic.

Some Background

The first sign it is ready is the smell: garlic and chilli sizzling in olive oil and then the sharp green steam of bitter leaves hitting the pan. Salsiccia e friarielli is a Neapolitan classic of pork sausage with friarielli, the local turnip tops, and it needs very little else.

Broccoli rabe, also sold as rapini or cime di rapa, is the nearest everyday substitute. Trim off the thick stalks, wash well and blanch for 2 minutes, which removes some bitterness without taking all of it. Dry the leaves before they hit the pan so they fry rather than steam. Brown the sausages first, so they leave their fat for the greens.

Fry the garlic and chilli in the sausage fat, add the greens and cook for 6 minutes, turning, until tender with brown edges. Return the sausages for the last 2 minutes. The dish is eaten in a bread roll in Naples. At home, serve it with crusty bread to mop the oil.

Serving Ideas

Crusty bread · Red wine · Roasted potatoes

Ingredient Swaps

An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.