Dennis and I went out for dinner and to a movie on Friday night. We decided to try the restaurant at Nordstrom since it was directly across from the Arclight Theater, Dennis’ favorite. The Nordstrom at UTC Mall near our home was rebuilt and had their grand opening on October 12th. (My good friend, Marie, and I did head there on opening day … there was no way we were going to miss that!) Apparently, Nordstrom doesn’t remodel, they rebuild. This new Nordstrom is supposed to be designed after their flagship store and has a wonderful full-service restaurant and bar, called Bazille. We most definitely enjoyed our dinner there. I did tell Dennis I’d also like to try the restaurant at lunch to see how the menu differs. We do love the restaurant at the Nordstrom location at Fashion Valley as well, which is called Cafe Nordstrom. It is a more casual restaurant, but we love it just as well.

While Dennis and I were perusing the menu, he came across a menu item and said to me “This homemade chicken sausage and burrata pasta is right up your alley. It’s so you!” Immediately, I went to find this item on the menu and Dennis was right, that was definitely a dish I would love, so that’s what I ordered. (I guess after 30 years of marriage, he knows me pretty well.) After trying this dish, I knew I had to try to make something similar to share with all of you.

I baked two Italian chicken sausages in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. I turned them halfway through so they would be browned on both sides.

Once the sausages were cooked through, I cut them in diaganol slices and then in half, before adding them to my sauté pan.

Note: I did not use any oil in my non-stick sauté pan. For no other reason than, I just didn’t want to. Next, I poured a 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes over the sausages and added Italian seasoning, kosher salt and red pepper flakes and mixed everything together.

 

I let the sausages cook together with the tomoatoes and seasonings while my pasta and kale cooked together in a large pot of boiling water.

I did not drain the noodles and kale once they were done. I used my spider and transferred them to my sauteé pan.

(spider)

I tossed the pasta and kale together with the sausages and tomatoes before placing it in my serving bowls.

 

Once I put my pasta in the pasta bowls, I laid a serving of barrata cheese over each serving. One burrata ball has four servings, so I cut it into quarters.

Dennis is really looking forward to having this again tomorrow. I’ll be at book club, so it’s the perfect dinner for him to enjoy while I’m out. I also walked some over to my friend and neighbor, Laura’s, house. I thought her husband, Joe, would enjoy this pasta while she was at book club with me. As it turns out, pasta is one of Joe’s favorite things … same as me. I could eat pasta every day.

Ingredients

• 2 Italian Chicken Sausages

• 1 pound rigatoni

• 28 ounce can diced tomatoes (no salt added)

• 1 10-ounce bag kale

• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for pasta water

• pinch of red pepper flakes

• 1 ball of burrata

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Bake sausages for 20 minutes, turning over half-way through.
3. Cook noodles and kale together in large pot of boiling, salted water.
4. Cut sausages on the diagonal and then cut each diagonal slice in half.
5. Add sausages to sauté pan.
6. Pour diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, kosher salt and red pepper flakes over sausages and cook on medium while pasta cooks.
7. Add pasta and kale to sausages and tomatoes and toss together.
8. Top each serving with burrata cheese.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris