Kale Sauce with Italian Sausage

Makes enough for 2 main-dish servings or 4 first-course servings

Start to finish: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound sweet italian or hot italian bulk sausage

kosher salt

2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 pound or about 2-3 bunches of kale (any variety), thick midribs cut out (composted or save for another recipe) and well rinsed.

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano, pecorino or pleasant ridge reserve

INSTRUCTIONS:

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil.
Meanwhile, crumble sausage into a skillet, brown it gently over medium heat and cook all the way through. Empty the sausage into a bowl and set aside, making sure to scrape out as much of the bits and oil as you can. Keep the skillet for the next step.
In the same skillet, put the garlic and olive oil over medium heat until the garlic begins to sizzle. Reduce the heat to low and gently cook until the garlic is light and golden, soft and fragrant 5-7 minutes. Pour the oil and garlic into a bowl so it can cool quickly. If your garlic burns, start over with a clean pan, new oil and new garlic.
When the water is boiling, add the kale leaves and boil until they are tender about 5 minutes, don’t over cook. Scoop out a ladle full of cooking water, then pull the kale leaves out with tongs or a slotted spoon and transfer them to a blender. It’s fine if they are still wet.
Process the kale in the blender with the oil-garlic mixture, adding a bit of cooking water if needed but you want to keep the sauce nice and thick. Taste and season with pepper.
Pour the sauce back into the pot where you boiled the kale.
Stir in the cheese and half of the sausage (save other half for your breakfast frittata), taste again and adjust the salt & pepper-the cheese and sausage are salty so you may not need to add any at all.
Serve over 1/2 pound cooked pasta, polenta, grains or use this technique for perfect baked potatoes (omitting the toppings they suggest).

This recipe is from Joshua McFadden of the cookbook Six Seasons and has been adapted by Erin Crooks Lynch of Enos Farms