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!

Chicken Sausage & Peach Tacos

Sometimes one has to stray away from the normal taco.  Sometimes, you just have to be daring.  Sometimes you just have to challenge the pairings of the Flavor Bible and come up with your own (after all - those pairings didn't just show up out of no where - there had to be a first attempt somewhere!).

What was originally a salad, but due to lack of enough lettuce (I know, lame right?), and over abundance of tortillas - soon became one of the most unique tacos I've ever come to know.  And whether it be fate or just pure luck... these things were delicious.


Ingredients:

2 chicken sausages (ours were a sun-dried tomato & basil blend)
shredded lettuce
2 peaches, quartered
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
warm tortillas

In a small skillet, melt the butter under medium high heat.  Add peaches and top with brown sugar.  Cook until peaches are soft and slightly carmelized, "shaking" the pan every so often in order to mix the butter and brown sugar to provide a delicious coating for the peaches.

Ideally, I wanted to grill the sausages, but Mother Nature wasn't havin' it and decided to literally rain on my parade.  So just fry up the whole sausages in a skillet under high heat instead.  Heat until cooked throughout then let rest on a cutting board for about 2-3 minutes, then slice.

Assemble your tacos by placing a layer of lettuce in the middle of a tortilla.  Then top with a few slices of peaches and finally top with a few slices of sausage.  Fold and enjoy!

There was sweet.  There was savory.  And it was all purely delicious!  I can now mark chicken sausage and peaches as a match made in heaven for my Flavor Bible notes - so I dare ya to give it a go and tell me what you think!

And don't forget, I do a CSA round-up every Thursday afternoon - there's still time to submit your CSA/Farmer's Market/Garden pictures!  Just e-mail me at mtlabor85@yahoo.com and I'll put them in the post tomorrow!  See you guys tomorrow.

Sausage & Radish Patties

Happy Monday guys!  How was everyone's weekend?  Ours was pretty laid back - we went to Andy's company picnic, which was interesting, but enjoyable.  My youngest sister also had a birthday, so we had to pay her a visit, as well.  Other than that, it was a lazy weekend just doing the bare minimum!

Do you ever get in one of those moods where you want more than one thing?  Say like, 3 or 4?  But can only pick one?  You know, like say... you want a burger.  Or some shrimp.  Or maybe some breakfast?  Yeah, I was in one of those moods this morning.  So after a good long staring session with some radishes in need of some love... I decided to go off the deep end and throw a bunch of stuff together.  The result?  Well, let's just say these may stay on my breakfast/brunch rotation for quite some time!

Ingredients:

1 lb. radishes, grated
about 5 medium shrimp, cooked and chopped finely
1/2 cup ground sausage
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon flour
salt and pepper, to taste
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
Hot Sauce, Ranch, & Dijon Mustard (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine radishes, shrimp, sausage, and cayenne pepper.  Mix in flour and season mixture with salt and pepper.  Add egg to combine everything together - it's okay if the mixture is a little wet.

Heat a large skillet under medium high heat and add olive oil.  Drop about 3 evenly sized patties (about the size of the palm of your hand) into the skillet and cook until sausage is cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

Serve with desired sauce - I did a three-way of hot sauce (personal fave), ranch, and Dijon mustard.  All 3 were excellent!

And breakfast was served in less than 30 minutes!  I was a little worried of whether all of this would come together nicely, but it did.  They really just taste like some deluxe sausage patties, and would be perfect in between some slider buns too - another genius idea, maybe?  But really, they're pretty tasty and full of layers of flavor!


Have you guys ever just thrown complete random ingredients together to make something amazing? 

Momma's Lasagna

I wish I had this long story about how my mother made awesome lasagna for us when we were growing up. But no, the name of this dish doesn't come from something my mother made for us. I mean, don't get me wrong, my mom made lasagna... but it was the kind you get in the freezer aisle and there's not much to that except putting it in the oven and letting it cook. No love there, but it fed us and I can't complain.

The real reason behind the name of this was that the whole time we were eating this last night, Andy kept saying... "Wow, this tastes just like my mom's lasagna." Had I ever had Andy's mother's lasagna? No. But I took it as a compliment and so I digress...


Ingredients:
Adapted from Cooking With Michelle's blog

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. mild italian sausage
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
4 cups sausage marinara
1 box of about 20 or so lasagna noodles, cooked
30 ounces ricotta cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

In a large skillet, under high heat, cook the beef and sausage until browned. Season with salt and pepper, and if you're feeling extra frisky throw in some red pepper flakes to add the heat.

Add about 2 1/2 cups of marinara to the beef and mix well.

Add 3/4 cup of marinara to the bottom of a rectangular roasting pan. Layer about 4-5 of the cooked lasagna noodles over marinara. Spread 1/3 of the meat mixture on top of the noodles. Then top with 1/3 of the ricotta, 1/2 of the parmesan, and 1 cup of the mozzarella.

Repeat layering twice more. Top the remaining noodles with remaining 3/4 cup of marinara and extra mozzarella cheese.

Cover tightly with foil and preheat oven to 375. Bake until heated all the way through and cheese is bubbly, about an hour or so. Cut into sections and serve!


This was absolutely delicious. It made tons of lasagna and is a great comfort food for any occasion! Enjoy!

Bangers N Beans

When I gave Andy his choices of what I was to make this past Sunday, he didn't sound thrilled with any of the choices whatsoever. I was for certain he was going to pick the ribs, but no ribs. I guess he didn't like the last time I made ribs (too much fennel in the rub overpowered the ribs, my own fault of course). So he reluctantly said the sausages and beans. I find myself using Cannelini beans a lot lately, and why not? They're full of nutrients and way cheap. Bon Appetit featured this recipe in it's October 2009 issue in a series of 10 rustic Italian recipes using the beans.

Ingredients:
adapted from Sausages w/ White Beans in Tomato Sauce from Bon Appetit Oct 2009

2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
4-5 hot Italian sausages, cut in half
2 15 oz cans Cannelini beans
1 cup plus more of chicken stock
2-4 fresh sage leaves
1 15 oz. can whole tomatoes plus juice
1 cup elbow macaroni
salt and pepper to taste

The original recipe said to use whole dry beans and cook them in this flavorful broth. One problem... I couldn't find dry cannelini/kidney beans for the life of me. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but I made do with what I COULD find and used the canned beans and made my own little simmering broth.

Combine the beans, chicken stock, 1 sage leave, and 1 crushed garlic clove (or more if you want). You want to make sure the stock covers the beans by at least 2/3. Then let that come to a boil and simmer on the stove for about 10-15 minutes. The longer you let it sit, the more the flavor will penetrate the beans, but if you let it sit too long, you end up with little or no liquid, so just watch it carefully and you be the judge.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet and over medium heat add the garlic. Saute until slightly brown, about 1-2 minutes. Add the sausages and cook until browned, 5 minutes or so. Add 1/2 cup of the bean cooking liquid (or water), tomatoes, and the rest of the sage to the pan. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the beans, along with the rest of the liquid (should be about a cup or so). Cover the pan with aluminum foil or a lid and let simmer under medium heat for about 30 minutes. About halfway through, about 15 minutes, add the elbow macaroni and cover again to resume simmering.

After the 30 minutes, uncover and you can keep simmering if you want the sauce to slightly thicken, or you can serve right away after adding salt and pepper to taste. I didn't simmer for any longer because I found that the macaroni absorbed a lot of liquid and in itself somewhat thickened the mixture.

Serve while hot and garnish with either sage leaves or parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

And once again, I prove Andy wrong. He found that the beans were quite flavorful and actually enjoyed the meal! What can I say...