To hear Gil tell it, he was a bit … cuddly … and carried around an extra 40 pounds before we met. Though I’ve seen evidence of it in pictures, I still find it hard to believe, given his rangy look these days. Granted, he’s almost a foot taller than me, so that amount of weight isn’t quite the disaster it would be on someone my size, but still — it’s pretty significant. So like a lot of other people at the time, he turned to the Atkins diet for a quick fix (which happened to stick).

Even after he lost the weight, he continued to shun carbs for a long time. And then he met me. (Mooo-haaa-haa-haaaaaaaaah!) Actually, I’m not really that big of a fan of carbs, but I don’t believe in depriving myself, so we eat a pretty well-balanced diet these days. And that includes carbs — sometimes quite a lot of them, as it turned out this weekend.

Scrambling for a late lunch Saturday, I threw together what is always a no-brainer: Orecchiette with chicken sausage and broccoli rabe. It’s easy, filling, not unhealthy, and best of all, delicious. But this wasn’t to be our only pasta indulgence over the weekend, thanks to the chuckleheads working the meat counter at Zeytinia.

I asked — twice! — for two duck breasts. They repeated my order and told me with regret that the breasts were frozen into one big package and I’d have to wait for them to thaw it enough to separate two. Not a problem, since I love to browse the store, so I waited. And waited. Five minutes turned into 15, but the thought of my duck breast dinner kept me going.

When I took the package out of the fridge the following day to begin marinating the duck, imagine my surprise to find two legs where the breasts should’ve been! Allowing myself only a momentary growl, I plunged headlong into preparations for duck ragu. (I suppose I could’ve made confit, but it didn’t seem to be worth it for only two legs, and dagnabbit, I wanted duck that very day!)

Can I just say a quick thank you to the aforementioned chuckleheads for their error? Though I had to supplement the duck legs with a few chicken thighs, this dish was really, really, really good. And pretty simple, too, once the nasty business removing the visible fat from the legs/thighs was done.

I’m so happy Gil learned to be flexible with his diet once his excess weight was lost. If he hadn’t, there’s no way I could’ve attempted the carbo-loading I did this weekend, and our recipe binder would’ve been much poorer for it.

recipes after the jump

Orechiette with Chicken Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

Yeah, I feel a little silly giving this as a recipe — it isn’t anything super-complicated. But some of you might not have tried it yet, and you really should, if pasta’s your thing.

olive oil
1 chicken sausage (I bought sausages seasoned with apple and sage)
1 bunch broccoli rabe, thick stems removed, leaves chopped
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil, chopped
red pepper flakes
chicken stock
1/2 lb. orecchiette (use less if you want the emphasis to be on the sauce)
salt
grated parmesan

In a cold skillet, put two tablespoons of olive oil and garlic. Turn stove to medium heat and cook garlic until it’s fragrant and just beginning to turn amber. Remove casing from sausage and crumble into the oil and garlic, and cook until browned. Make a hot spot at the edge of the pan and cook tomato paste there for about 30 seconds, until it begins to caramelize, then mix with sausage and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Add broccoli rabe, sundried tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and a splash of chicken stock and cook, stirring occasionally, until broccoli rabe wilts.

Boil orecchiette in salted water until nearly al dente. Add pasta to the pot with the sauce, along with a ladle of the pasta water, and cook until pasta reaches al dente stage, or the texture you like. Garnish with as much parmesan as your conscience will allow.

Duck Ragu

I’ll give you the recipe using only duck legs, but feel free to use fewer and supplement with chicken thighs as I did. The chicken was a little bit tougher than the duck, ultimately, but not tough or stringy enough to cause problems.

4 duck legs, visible fat removed
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 carrot, diced
1 onion, diced
1 celery stick, diced
1 can tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 medium sage leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup red wine
chicken stock
grated parmesan
1 lb. sagnarelli or other sturdy pasta

Pour two cups boiling water over porcinis and soak in small bowl for 30 minutes. Remove rehydrated porcinis and chop, saving the soaking liquid for later.

Generously season duck legs with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat until nearly smoking, then add duck legs to pan, browning well. This should take about 10 minutes. Remove duck legs to a plate.

Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pot. Add carrot, onion, celery, and garlic to pot and cook until vegetables wilt and turn golden brown. Scrape up as much of the fond from the bottom of the pot as you can once the vegetables start to release their water. Make a hot spot, and add the tomato paste to it, stirring constantly, until it starts to caramelize. Once it does, blend it with the vegetables and cook for a couple minutes longer. Add porcini soaking liquid (careful not to get any of the sludge in the pot), porcinis, sage, bay leaf, red wine, and some chicken stock, if the mixture looks too thick. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add duck legs to the pot, cover, leaving lid slightly open, and cook for at least one hour.

Remove duck legs from pot, let cool for a few minutes, then shred meat and put it back into the pot, cooking until sauce is thick.

Boil sagnarelli is salted water until nearly al dente. Add to pot with duck ragu and add two ladles of pasta cooking water. Stir, simmering, until pasta reaches al dente stage. Serve with grated parmesan.