Hi friends! Lots of blooming trees and happy green grass here in Brooklyn — thrilled to say that spring is finally springing. Time to store your puffer jacket and whip out the allergy meds, here comes the happiest season <3
In this month’s newsletter, I’ll cover:
The recipe development workshop hosted by the one & only
carla lalli music
Jess Damuck’s new cookbook called Health Nut
Recipe No. 2: Spicy Broccoli Rabe and Crispy Sausage Crunchwrap
Cowboy Carter, obviously
The month of March was not entirely dreary this year, thanks to the weekly Monday night panels & Friday advice columns from Carla’s brilliant Recipe Development Workshop. For those who may not know Carla, she has done it all in the food media world: she’s worked on the line in restaurants, attended culinary school, worked in Bon Appetit’s Test Kitchen, published two incredible cookbooks, and now develops recipes she shares on Substack & YouTube. If you can’t tell, she’s an absolute rockstar. I highly suggest following her for a constant content stream of yumminess and fun.
During her Workshop, Carla shared some truly priceless words of wisdom re: writing, testing, and publishing your own recipes. In doing so, she created a community of budding recipe developers, all of whom were eager to cross-test each other’s recipes. It was such a treat to be a part of this workshop!
Carla also featured guest speakers on her Monday night panels, one of whom was
. Jess just came out with her second cookbook, called Health Nut (her first cookbook, Salad Freak, is a favorite of mine). After receiving my copy of Health Nut, I’ve been compulsively cooking my way through it. Some highlights from the past week: the Creamsicle Smoothie, Morning Glory Muffins, Martha’s [Stewart] Green Juice, and Roasted Shiitake Soup with Crispy Tofu. If you know what’s good for you (both literally and figuratively, as there is an ABUNDANCE of tasty veg in this book), get your hands on a copy asap.A fun fact about Jess: she used to be a member of the Park Slope Food Coop before moving to LA. Unsurprisingly, her time at the Coop was a huge factor in her growing appreciation for fresh, local, organic produce. As someone who is constantly inspired by the Coop’s bounty, I was veryyyy drawn to the bright green bushels of broccoli rabe that have been gracing the shelves lately. Which is what leads me to Recipe #2: Spicy Broccoli Rabe and Crispy Sausage Crunchwrap. This recipe is incredibly versatile; you could add scrambled eggs to brunch-ify it, cook as-is for a hearty lunch, or whip up with a bright side salad for a well-rounded and veggie-forward dinner. Now get cooking!
Spicy Broccoli Rabe and Crispy Sausage Crunchwrap
Serving Size: 2-4 | Prep Time: 30 minutes
The Crunchwrap: certainly the best thing to come out of Taco Bell since its inception. The crunch factor is truly the only thing missing from a burrito (an otherwise perfect food), so here we have borrowed that golden-brown & toasted exterior and applied it to an all-time favorite flavor combo: broccoli and cheddar. Not your average broccoli, though, no! Broccoli rabe, if you are not yet acquainted, is broccoli’s leafier, more bitter and complex cousin. It’s worth a trip to Whole Foods or the farmer’s market for that reason. Broccoli rabe does a much better job standing up to the sharpness of the cheddar, and when paired with near-carmelized shallots and garlic, drizzled with vinegary hot sauce, and wrapped & crisped to perfection, you’ll see why.
Ingredients
1 lb. Hot Italian sausage (can use alt. sausage if vegetarian)
2 cloves garlic
3 shallots
1 bunch broccoli rabe
Kosher salt
½ block sharp cheddar cheese (about 4 oz.)
Large flour tortillas (about 10” in diameter)
Vinegar-based hot sauce (e.g. Crystal, Cholula, Tabasco, Zab’s)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
Crisp the sausage:
Remove the sausage casing by slicing your knife down (the long way) along the sausage. Set a large skillet over medium heat and add the naked sausage, breaking up into large bite-sized chunks as you do so. Cook until just browned and crisp on the bottom, 4-5 minutes. Flip and crisp on the other side, another 2-3 minutes.
Prep and sauté the veg:
While the sausage is browning, thinly slice 2 cloves garlic. To the shallots, trim ends, peel, then thinly slice. Roughly chop the whole bunch of broccoli rabe, including leaves, into bite-sized pieces. With a slotted spoon or fish spatula, remove the sausage from the skillet and add the garlic and shallots to the skillet over medium-low heat. There should be a thin layer of oil from the sausage. Season with salt to taste, and cook until just starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the broccoli rabe to the skillet with the shallots and garlic, season with salt, and toss. Sauté until bright green and wilted, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Grate cheese and assemble:
While the broccoli rabe is wilting, grate the cheddar on the middle thickness of the box grater. Into the center of the tortilla, sprinkle a handful of the cheese. Do the same with the broccoli, then the sausage, and finally a hearty drizzle of your favorite hot sauce. As you would a burrito, tuck both the left and the right edges of the tortilla into the middle, and tightly wrap the bottom edge up and over the middle of the burrito and tuck into the top. Rest wrap on seam-side edge. Do the same with the remaining tortillas.
Crunch-ify the wraps:
Over medium-low heat, drizzle EVOO to lightly coat the skillet. Add wraps two at a time, seam-side down. Once golden brown and crisp on seam side (peek with your spatula), flip to the other side and cook until crisp. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, slice in half, and serve with more hot sauce for dipping.
Note: Depending on the size of your tortilla, this recipe could produce two to four wraps. You don’t want to fill the tortilla so much that it won’t easily wrap, but you also want to make sure there’s a good ratio of broccoli rabe to sausage to shallots and garlic. Also, if you can’t find hot Italian sausage, you can use sweet Italian and add red pepper flakes.
PS: Would LOVE to know what your favorite Cowboy Carter song is… I haven’t stopped listening since the album came out, not an exaggeration. If you really want to know, I’m a YA YA sun, American Requiem moon, and Levii’s Jeans rising