Sauteed Sausage with Grapes & Broccoli Rabe (a Jess post)

This meal started out with a minor panic at the grocery store. The recipe (from this month's issue of Cooking Light) specifically called for broccoli rabe. Once in the produce section, I found broccoli, broccolini, and an oddly broccoli looking veg called rapini, but no broccoli rabe. In all honesty, since I never cooked with it before, I wasn't sure what I was looking for. I was positive it wasn't regular broccoli though so I had a 50-50 chance that I'd buy something at least sort of similar. I threw the rapini in my cart and peered at it out of the corner of my eye for the rest of my shopping trip waiting for a clue that never arrived.

rapini (aka the elusive broccoli rabe)

As soon as I was home I ran to my beloved Google and found out that rapini actually IS broccoli rabe. Pfft... I TOTALLY knew that. I'm sort of a brassica genius, I don't know if you knew that about me.

So this recipe SHOULD have actually been super easy to make. There aren't many ingredients or complex cooking techniques. But in the midst of my preparation, this happened:

Drew decided that RIGHT THEN was the best time to continue with his home improvement project. Nevermind that I SAID I was making dinner and would therefore not be able to parent our child for the next half hour. Oh, and that crap ALL OVER MY FLOOR? Yes, that is grout. Big, giant puddles of grout. Oh, and that tiny human on the floor dangerously near the grout? Yes, that is our son. You cant tell, but he was actually hysterical at this point because no one was playing with him. So I got to try to make dinner while my husband slopped cement all over the house and my son screamed curses at us in between trying to permanently mortar himself to our floor.

That being said, I think it turned out quite well:

I LOVED it. The broccoli rabe has a nutty, bitter quality to it. When combined with the spicy sausage, sweet grapes, creamy parmesan and sour vinegar it was the perfect flavor and it made me happy on an otherwise difficult evening. Griffin enjoyed it too which really surprised me given the unusual flavors!

note Drew attempting to clean his giant mess in the background

Drew, on the other hand, was not a fan. He blamed it on the onions but then went on to say it was just a "plate of veggies". Uhhh, dude- it was WAY more than that! Sigh. But I liked it enough to risk it, I think. His loss anyway.