Escarole with Chicken Sausage

"When you're doing a dish with several ingredients in one pot, you want the flavors to scream. These flavors scream." – Adam Ried (Photo by Heath Robbins, styling by Catrine Kelty)

Stephen Gazillo of Longmeadow, a transportation planner who specializes in rail projects, got a version of this recipe as a wedding present of sorts. His Aunt Palmi "wrote it on these little Post-it notes," he says, and gave it to him before he was married almost 12 years ago. He has tinkered with the recipe over the years and makes the dish at least once a month - even though his wife is a vegetarian.

FIRST PLACE

ESCAROLE WITH CHICKEN SAUSAGE
SERVES 6

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds sweet Italian chicken sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
Crushed red pepper (optional)
10 cloves garlic, chopped
4 heads escarole, cut crosswise into 3-inch lengths
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
2 cans (15 ounces each) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup small capers
1/2 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
Salt and black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Italian-flavored bread crumbs, toasted

In a large, deep, ovenproof saute pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the sausage and red pepper, if using, and cook until sausage is light brown on all sides and almost cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and the escarole and continue cooking over medium heat, stirring, until escarole begins to cook through and is reduced in volume but remains green and crunchy, about 10 minutes (do this in batches if the pan is too small). Add the olives, beans, pine nuts, and capers. Stir them in and heat through, about 2 minutes. Turn on the broiler. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the cheese, and season with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle the mixture with bread crumbs and heat under the broiler until crumbs are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

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