pasta with 'nduja, collard greens, and radishes

This is my best pasta dish that others are also reasonably likely to enjoy. (My other best pasta recipe contains a lot of anchovies, and, well, that sentence either starts with an "and" or a "but" for you.) It's adapted from a Sara Jenkins recipe.

I call this, slightly facetiously, a "Southern-Italian" recipe -- several southern Italian dishes follow the basic template of pasta, sausage, and bitter vegetables, but this is also basically a lot of collards cooked with a lot of fatty pork, i.e., Southern.

So, because I grew up in the South, I've doubled the amount of collards and increased the amount of 'nduja. I've also added some roasted radishes, because I think the juiciness plays well against the strongly flavored greens and neutral pasta.

vegetarian/vegan?

Not this one -- the sausage is pretty central.

ingredients

• One package of relatively large pasta -- rigatoni, cavatappi, fusilli, etc. Basically, you want something substantial enough to stand up to a large amount of collard greens, but also with the texture/surface area to catch crumbs of sausage. Don't use cascatelli because it is bullshit.
• One package of 'nduja. You can find this online (the Tempesta brand is most common) or at Italian markets; usually it's 6-8 ounces. The idea is that it will cook down to a sauce on its own; you could use regular sausage and this will almost definitely still be good, but it'll also be a different dish.
• 2 pounds of fresh collard greens, cut into strips or pieces. (If you have the large pre-cut Glory bags at your grocery store, two of those.) You can use less, but there's a lot of sausage and the greens are here to soak that up. You could use more, probably.
• 1-2 pounds of radishes, enough to fill 1-2 largish sheet pans. If you really hate radishes you can leave them out -- the original recipe doesn't have them -- but roasting radishes turns them into an almost entirely different vegetable, more juicy and less bitter.
• Olive oil, and a small amount of canola or other neutral oil.
• Spices: Salt, smoked paprika and/or regular paprika, possibly cayenne.
• Optional: Grated Romano cheese, the stronger the better.
• Optional: Bread crumbs; the original recipe includes these but I think this is heavy/substantial enough without. If using them, toast them first.

directions

1. Slice the radishes in half, or into thirds/quarters if they are especially large.
   Toss them in a bowl with olive oil, salt, and smoked paprika, if you have it, or a small amount of cayenne and regular paprika, if you don't.
   Basically, we're trying to replicate the spice of the sausage, since this is the only ingredient that will be cooking separately.
2. Arrange the radishes on one or two sheet pans, being careful not to overcrowd the pan, and put them in the oven at 400 F.
   How long to roast them is up to preference. Radishes contain a lot of water, so they are forgiving in terms of roasting time.
   If you're blanching the collards, the radishes will probably be ready exactly when you need to add them to the pan. If not, they might take a little longer.
3. Boil some lightly salted water in a large pot, then add the greens.
   You don't want to blanch them more than a couple minutes, so unless you have a huge pot you will almost definitely need to go in batches for this. So, simultaneously:
4. Put a very small amount of canola or other neutral oil in a wok or large pan on medium-to-low heat. The sausage is already pretty oily on its own; this is to prevent it from sticking.
   Add the package of 'nduja, removing the casing first. Yes, the whole thing. All of it. This isn't health food.
   Break the sausage up in the pan so it cooks faster and doesn't stick.
5. With a spider or slotted spoon, repeatedly add batches of greens to the pan with the sausage, stirring continually.
   Don't worry about draining them -- the small amount of cooking water they take with them will prevent the sausage from sticking to the pan.
6. If you're getting impatient or don't have much time, you can also cook part of the greens directly in the sausage pan without blanching, although the texture and taste will be different.
   I wouldn't recommend doing all the greens this way, because we're going to cook the pasta in their blanching water.
7. The radishes should be done by now -- a fork should go through them without much resistance. If they appear slightly overcooked or "wrinkled," that's OK for this purpose.
   Add them to the pan with the greens and sausage and stir.
8. Add the pasta to the pan with the spider/slotted spoon when it is just before al dente -- it's going to finish cooking there, so you want to account for that.
   Add some of the pasta water, but not too much -- this shouldn't be watery.
9. Lightly stir/toss the pasta to coat it with the sausage and greens. The mixture will be heavy, so just try not to break it too much if you care about it looking pretty.
   If you notice it sticking to the bottom, add more pasta water.
10. After the pasta cooks for a bit -- until it noticeably tastes like something other than plain pasta -- turn off the heat or turn it to the lowest setting.
    Add the romano cheese and/or breadcrumbs on top.
11. This keeps well in the fridge for a few days. I've never had the leftovers for more than a few days.

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