Penne with Turkey and Broccoli Rabe

I love pasta.  Although I've never made home-made pasta before, I usually cook some type of pasta dish at least once a week.  The kids love pasta as well so I try to make kid-friendly pasta dishes that I hope they'll eat.  This recipe looked good and was easy to make.  Notice how I said it "looked" good.  Both my husband and I commented that it just didn't do it for us with the ground turkey.  We're used to eating a similar dish with sausage.  And we realized that it definitely tastes better with sausage too!  Every bite we took we were expecting a sausage taste but instead we had bland ground turkey.  The parmesan cheese helped to flavor it up but this was not a favorite dish of ours.  The kids enjoyed it though and I'm always happy when I make a dinner that they eat and like!

Penne with Turkey and Broccoli Rabe
Recipe adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray, April 2012

Ingredients:
3/4 pound penne
1/4 cup EVOO
1 bunch broccoli rabe
salt and pepper
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 pound ground turkey, preferably dark meat
grated parmesan for topping (optional)

Directions:
1.In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the penne until al dente, 11 to 13 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water.

2.Meanwhile, in a large skillet, add 2 tbsp. EVOO over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli rabe and season with salt and pepper. Stir in 2 tbsp. water, cover and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

3.Lower the heat to medium, add the remaining EVOO and the onion and cook until soft, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Push the onion to the side of the pan, increase the heat to medium-high and crumble in the turkey; season. Cook, stirring, until the meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.

4.Add the pasta, broccoli rabe and three-quarters of the reserved pasta water to the turkey; toss well. Add the remaining pasta water if needed to thin the sauce.

Family Rating: So-so.