Spadea’s back — and right into the best pasta of the summer!

As you have heard, right before I took a brief leave from hosting the morning show, and on my first show back, food is paramount.

In our house, Jodi and I live to eat instead of the other way around. We started a couple of years ago by cutting out processed food — nothing in our house with high fructose corn syrup and nothing with seed oils.

We've also realized that you have to go a bit deeper to keep a healthy diet with home cooking.

We no longer buy products with "enriched" or "fortified" grains. So our pasta comes from Italy. You can order directly through Amazon and have it delivered, or visit your favorite local Italian market and get the organic wheat bronze cut.

One of my favorite pastas to order out is orecchiette (little ears) and one of the best places to get it is at Birravino Italian Restaurant in Red Bank. Ask for Marie and Justine when you go and tell 'em I say hello! Then you gotta order the orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe. For an appetizer, order the pizza with ricotta!

I tried my best to recreate a similar dish at home and it turned out nearly perfect. The key is to cook the pasta for at least 10 minutes, yes, I like it al dente too and for THIS pasta you need to cook it a little more as it's thicker, plus don't forget to stir so it doesn't clump together.

Next step is to take the sausage out of the casing and crumble it on medium heat, you can add a little beef tallow if you need some additional fat.

Once the sausage is cooked, add in about 4 cloves of chopped garlic. Then cook for another few minutes, turn off the heat and drizzle in heavy cream and grated cheese. Make it as creamy as you like but make sure you fold in the cheese and cream with the heat off, don't break the sauce!

In a separate pan (I know, but three pans/pots is worth it) add some water and cover two bunches of Rabe.

Cut the stems off before putting them in. Steam until the rabe turns bright green, then drain the excess water.

Turn the heat down a bit and add a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, crushed black pepper, crushed red peppers and a chopped garlic clove. After about 2 minutes, remove from the pan and place on a cutting board. Add the rabe to the cheesy, creamy sausage and mix.

Yes, get this all done before you cook your pasta! Add the cooked pasta to the sausage and rabe pan and mix well.

Turn up the heat for about a minute and add to your favorite pasta bowl.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own.

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