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Jump to RecipeI think I came across this recipe for Blue Cheese Rigatoni with Sausage, Apples, and Arugula via Pinterest. Giada de Laurentiis has countless number of amazing recipes, and I adapted this from one of hers. Since then, it’s become a household staple. Surprisingly, even my toddler loves the blue cheese sauce! I like to make this when we are travelling for the weekend with a big group, as it makes a large quantity, includes vegetables and fruits, and you don’t need any special equipment. All you need is a large pot to boil the pasta, and a large frying pan. Blue cheese lovers will love the flavourful meal. Those who are a bit wary of blue cheese won’t be faced with chunks of stinky cheese, but a tangy, savoury sauce that lightly coast the pasta.
This is an easy almost-one-pot dish that I can also quickly whip up for dinner after work. The Blue Cheese Rigatoni with Sausage, Apples, and Arugula uses one 500 g pack of rigatoni, one 500 g pack of Italian sausage, one pack of fresh arugula, one pack of blue cheese, and three apples. There’s no half-pack of ingredients waiting around for the rest of the week.
You can use either sweet or spicy Italian sausage. Of course, using a spicy sausage will make the overall dish a bit more spicy. Use the best quality Italian sausage you can afford – we get ours from our CSA box (shoutout to Cooper’s!). Gorgonzola is a great blue cheese to use, but I normally use Castello Danish Blue Cheese because it’s always available in our local grocery shop. When preparing this dish, make sure to reserve about one cup of pasta cooking water. This starchy, salty liquid will help melt the blue cheese and make the sauce. If you forget and drain the pasta in the sink, just use a cup of broth instead.
I sometimes add a handful of chopped walnuts to the finished pasta for a bit of crunch.
Blue Cheese Rigatoni with Sausage, Apples, and Arugula
Ingredients
- 500 g rigatoni pasta
- 500 g sweet or spicy Italian sausage
- 2-3 apples cored and sliced
- 150 g arugula
- 125 g blue cheese
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta cooking water.
- While pasta boils, remove sausage from casing. In a large frying pan over medium heat, saute the sausage. Break up the sausage with a wooden spoon as it cooks.
- When sausage has started to brown, about 5 minutes, add apple slices. Cook for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the cooked noodles, blue cheese, and 1/2 cup pasta cooking water to the sausage. Stir, breaking up the blue cheese and allowing it to melt. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup more pasta cooking water if needed to loosen the sauce.
- Add the arugula. Stir over medium heat until arugula has just wilted.
- Serve hot!
Check out our other pasta and noodle recipes here:
I am not a fan of blue cheese, so will have to substitute that with a different cheese
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I was looking for a new pasta dish with cheese, we love Danish blue but I’m not sure how easy it would be to get Italian spicy sausages. I might try it with pork and apple sausages and not put the apples in. Yum yum!
Huh, this sounds interesting. I’d like to give this a try.
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That looks really tasty6 and easy to make. Thanks for joining in with #pocolo
This looks so delicious and so easy! Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner party. Hope your week is starting great!
This recipe intrigues me! Looking forward to giving it a try!