Sausage & Broccoli Pasta

It's late, so I won't keep you up too long.  I'm pretty darn exhausted.  We had our spring/summer volleyball tournament tonight and well - we lost.  It was double elimination and we won 1 of our 3 matches, so it just wasn't meant to be.  The summer/fall season starts next week, so we'll be ready to rock it out.

Anyway, I thought I'd post this simple sausage and broccoli pasta because it's one of my favorite weeknight dinners.  It's one of those meals that I combine the veggies I have on hand and just make a meal of it!




Ingredients:

1/2 lb. ziti
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chicken sausages, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 thai chiles, chopped
1 medium sized broccoli head, chopped
14 oz can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
small handful of basil leaves, chopped
1/3 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, shredded, plus more for topping
2 ears of corn, cut off of the cob

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add ziti and cook according to the package directions for al dente.  Drain.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil.  Add sausage and cook until browned, about 4-5 minutes.

Add more olive oil, if needed, and add garlic and chiles.  Stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add broccoli pieces and corn and saute for about 2-3 minutes.

Stir in crushed tomatoes, salt, and pepper.  Simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Stir in ziti and toss to combine.  Remove from heat and stir in basil and Pecorino Romano cheese.  Top with additional Pecorino Romano, if desired.

This was just one of those simple pasta dishes that whips together in no time!  Packed full of veggies and flavor - it's definitely worth keeping in the weeknight dinner rotation.

Don't forget that tomorrow is CSA Thursday, so if you've got a CSA/Farmer's Market find/Garden goodies to share - e-mail me with a picture and/or link to your blog post @ mtlabor85@yahoo.com and I'll post it in the roundup tomorrow evening!

Braised Chicken Breasts

First of all, thanks for the Foodbuzz Top 9 Votes today!  Glad you guys liked my Chocolate Hazelnut Cake!  Guess I should keep baking things after all!

Today was our last CSA pick-up for the season.  Such a sad day because now I have to wait until May!  This was our first year doing a CSA and we did it through Grasshopper Distribution, right here in Louisville.  If you live in the area, or know anyone who does, I'd definitely highly recommend them!

We also ordered our Thanksgiving turkey through them as well and we get to pick up our lovely free-range bird on Monday!  Of course, my dad is cooking it (Thanksgiving is definitely his holiday), but it's great that we get to contribute something a little different and hopefully tastier than our previous frozen turkeys!  Maybe from now on, I'll have convinced my family to get free-range birds!  Who knows!

Anyway, I've got a pretty awesome braised chicken recipe today!  This comes from Greg from Sippity Sup's recipe!  I left out a few things and used chicken breasts instead of thighs.  I would normally use thighs anyway, but for some reason we just had breasts in the fridge and I didn't want to make a trip to the grocery, so braised breasts it was!


Ingredients:

Adapted from Sippity Sup's recipe

4 chicken breasts
1 cup flour
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons, plus 1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon dried parsley
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups orzo pasta
1/2 teaspoon dried coriander

Gently rinse each chicken breast under cold water and pat dry.  In a shallow dish, combine flour, salt, and pepper.  Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture, and shake off any excess.

In a large dutch oven under medium high heat, heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add onions and cook until translucent, about 4-5 minutes.  Remove from pot with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Adding more oil if needed, and in batches of 2, add the chicken breasts.  Brown each side, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.  Set breasts on a plate and tent with foil.

Deglaze pot with wine, and scrape up any browned bits (these guys are packed with flavor!).  Cook until wine is reduced by half, about 4-6 minutes.  Add chicken stock and bring mixture to a boil over high heat.

Add in reserved onions and raisins into pot.  Bring to a simmer and add all of the chicken breasts in, making an even layer.  Cover pot with lid and slowly simmer for about 1 hour.

While the chicken is cooking, mix lemon zest, lemon juice, and parsley in a small bowl.  Heat a small skillet under medium heat.  Add garlic, and stir continuously until garlic just starts to turn golden.  Remove the garlic and mix in with lemon/parsley mixture.  Stir well to combine. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the garlic mixture.  Let mixture sit at room temperature until chicken is ready.

About 20 minutes before chicken is done, you can start preparing your orzo.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add orzo.  Cook according to package directions for al dente, about 7-9 minutes.  Drain and return to pot.

Add 1/4 cup olive oil and dried coriander to orzo.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Stir in lemon/parsley mixture.

Lay orzo down on a large platter.  Top with chicken thighs and any sauce from pot over top.

This was pretty delicious!  I thought maybe braising the chicken breasts would result on something somewhat dry, but this was actually surprisingly juicy!  I've never cooked with orzo before (Andy even thought he was eating rice the whole time!) but it's definitely one of my favorite pastas now!  It paired very well with the chicken and the sauce was quite flavorful!  Enjoy guys!