Wild Boar Sausage Pasta

Sometimes you see something and you say " I just gotta have that!!"
Walking through the Cioffis butcher shop on Hastings near Boundary Road I saw these Wild Boar Sausages in the freezer section.  I didn't know what I was going to do with them but I'd think of something.  I've had Wild Boar Prosciutto before and it was so flavourful I had to try these sausages.  I blame my fascination with wild boar on my grade 7 English teacher that made us read "The Lord of the Flies."

Feeds about 4 - 6, takes about an hour.

Ingredients

1 lb wild boar sausages
1 1/2 lbs fresh kale
4 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped red onion
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 cups tomato puree (blend a large can of crushed tomatoes)
1/2 cup dry red wine
ground salt and pepper
2 cups pasta ( I use Truroots Organic Gluten-Free Penne Pasta from Costco)
Crushed red chilli flakes to taste

Directions

• Peel casings off sausages. Break into small pieces,
• Trim heavy stems from kale and keep the leaves, rinse.  Chop kale leaves

• Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a 4 -5 quart heavy skillet, salute pan or casserole. 
• Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring over medium heat until softened.
• Add sausages and cook, stirring, until they begin to brown.

• Add about 1/3 of the kale and when it has wilted, continue adding kale until all has wilted.

starting to wilt the kale

• Stir in tomato puree and wine
• Simmer over low heat about 10 minutes, season with salt and pepper, cover and continue simmering.

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook until al dente (follow package instructions) about 8 minutes.
• Drain well and add to kale mixture.
• Add remaining olive oil and fold ingredients together
• Add chili flakes and more salt if needed, Stir a little more 
• Serve and yum it up!

It was a quick throw together on a Tuesday night after work for this meal.  The kale was from the garden, I took the sausage out of the freezer in the morning and it was go time when we got home.  We had a nice Pinot Noir with this and it really set it off right, especially for a Tuesday night!  No flies to "Lord" over with this recipe!

This recipe was based on pasta with wild boar sausage and kale from the New York Times Cooking section.  Thank you.