Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Pasta with sausage and cherry tomatoes: A quick back-to-school dinner for #SundaySupper


Just a few days ago, it seemed, long months of summer stretched out before me. And now I find myself a week from the first day of school, preparing to shift into the high gear of fall, planning meals, schedules, days. How does time get away like that?


This week, Sunday Supper is about fast and easy back-to-school meals to help you get a tasty meal on the table fast. I've made one of my favorite go-to dishes: pasta with sausage and cherry tomatoes, which takes advantage of the tomato bounty that's still to be found at the farmers market. But the nice thing about this dish is how incredibly easy it is to vary, using what's in season and at the height of flavor and nutrition. I've provided a few suggestions for variations at the end of the recipe. And don't forget to check out what else is cooking for Sunday Supper this week. This group of bloggers has really served up a bounty of recipes that should help you (and me) get a delicious dinner on the table fast.

   

Ingredients

  • 1 lb pork sausage (sweet or hot Italian-style as you prefer, casings removed)
  • 1 lb dried pasta (I used rombi in this recipe, but most shapes will do fine)
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 cup half and half or heavy cream (+ more as needed)
  • 1 packed cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
  • 1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

  1. Start a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. When it comes to a rolling boil, cook the pasta according to package instructions and drain.
  2. While the water starts to boil and the pasta cooks, start cooking the sausage in a wide, deep pan over medium heat (to render out some of the fat), breaking it up into crumbles as it cooks. (If you use turkey sausage, add some oil to the pan before cooking so that it doesn't dry out.) Cook the sausage until fully cooked and nicely browned. Keep the sausage warm on low heat until you've got about 5 minutes left of pasta cooking time. 
  3. Raise the heat of the pan with the sausage to medium high. Add the crushed garlic to the pan and cook for a minute, stirring frequently. Don't let it burn; burnt garlic is awful.  
  4. Add the tomatoes to the pan. Let them cook for about a minute. 
  5. Add the cheese and the half and half or cream to the pan. Cook until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 1-2 minutes. (Add more half and half or cream if the sauce seems too scanty.)
  6. Season the sauce with thyme, white pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. 
  7. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the sausage, tomatoes, and sauce. Mix in the pasta and let it soak in the sauce for about a minute or two. Taste it to make sure the seasoning is to your liking. Serve and enjoy.   

Variations

  • When the sausage is cooked, add thinly sliced half-moons of two leeks to the pan and let them soften before adding the tomatoes. 
  • Add a sliced bell pepper at about the same time you add the tomatoes.   
  • Add a cup of frozen peas about a minute before you add the garlic.  
  • Instead of using tomatoes, add bite size pieces of broccoli or cauliflower early in the cook time. 
  • Replace the tomatoes with sliced leeks and sugar snap peas. 
  • Add a cup of steamed, cubed butternut squash and a handful of pepitas after cooking the sauce. 

The Sunday Supper Lineup

Here's the whole lineup of quick back-to-school meals from the Sunday Supper group. Don't forget to tune into the chat on Twitter at 7 EST using the hashtag #SundaySupper

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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Spring pasta with salmon and sugar snap peas--and a look back on an independent year


A year ago last week was my last day as a wage slave. My plan had been to go out on my own and start a food blog and share my passion for seasonal and local food; the future was grand, rosy, exciting. After years of feeling stuck in jobs that didn't seem to appreciate all that I had to offer and were leaving all my brilliance and skills on the table, I was going to get out on my own and put all that smart and talented out there. (And I was going to get my house in order, get in shape, and about a dozen other things.)  

Well, I started a freelance career as an editor, proofreader, and writer, and I started a food blog. I quit some bad habits. I ran a lot. Some portions of my house got clean--for a while. But only now do I begin to understand how differently I need to think about my work, to plan my life, to organize my time. Only now do I realize several hundred thousand food bloggers are out there, sharing their passion, and doing it with way prettier pictures and often with far more graceful prose. Only now do I realize that, yeah, I am smart and talented, but a lot of people are smart and talented, and many are way more trained and knowledgeable than I am. Ouch.

So those were some lessons: I wasn't nearly as good and smart as I thought. I wasn't nearly as passionate about food as I thought. Finding clients wasn't so easy, especially after the funding for my first big one dried up. There are always going to be people who are more talented, more committed, less diffused over multiple priorities. Less confused really. A heck of a lot more focused and driven.  

As you can imagine, that hurt. Especially the part about not being as good and smart as I thought I was. Yeah, that stung.

But it was an honest lesson, a real lesson. I wouldn't say I am humbler now, but I am gaining some clarity and perspective. I am clearing away some imposed rules, some imposed ways of thinking, some imposed parameters for beauty. And that's good, because I get to try and start fresh, to see with new eyes, to start to remember the first look and feel and smell of creativity, what that was like, so many years ago when the block of clay first hit the table.

And all I really meant to do tonight was share a recipe for pasta with sugar snap peas and salmon, and here I am, off on this tangent. Oh well. Here's how to make the pasta. It's really good: light, fresh, pretty in green and pink, with a nice crisp crunch from the peas--everything you'd ever want in a spring pasta. So get thee to the farmer's market and find some sweet crunchy sugar snaps!  

Pasta with salmon and sugar snap peas
  • 12 oz. salmon fillets (whatever's in season, or wildcaught frozen and defrosted)
  • 1 lb pasta (I used rombi in this recipe)
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 Tbsp finely chopped shallots
  • 3 spring onions, green tops removed, sliced thinly
  • 2 cups sugar snap peas, ends and strings removed
  • juice from a half lemon
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • salt, pepper, dried thyme
  1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. (Start boiling the pasta about the same time you start the fish so they finish at the same time.)
  2. Rinse the salmon fillets in cold water, dry them with paper towels, and salt and pepper them. Prepare your produce (shallots, spring onions, and sugar snap peas).
  3. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large deep pan.
  4. When the butter bubbles and browns slightly, place the salmon fillets in the pan. Sprinkle the lemon juice all over the fillets. Let them cook for 1-2 minutes, and turn them over to cook for another minute on the other side. Take them out of the pan, put them on a plate tented with foil (keeps them warm). 
  5. Add the shallots and the spring onions to the pan, cook until they soften (about 2 minutes). 
  6. Add the sugar snap peas to the pan, let them cook for 2 minutes. 
  7. Add the heavy cream and the Dijon mustard to the pan. Let the sauce cook until it thickens (about 2 minutes). Season with salt, pepper, and thyme to taste. 
  8. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce in the pan and mix it all together. Turn off the heat. 
  9. Removing the skin, break the salmon into flaky pieces and mix them into the pasta.
  10. Eat! Enjoy! Even my five-year old liked this:



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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Food I want to make

I have a huge craving for sweets at the moment, which is a bit weird, I don't usually crave them so ferociously. I am also too exhausted to make anything, and the thought of getting some kind of candy bar or something is actually kind of repugnant (guess I must not be craving sweets that much).

So I was daydreaming about what I might be able to make with what I have. I think I may have some chocolate, but somehow the season doesn't say "chocolate" to me. I've got a bag of organic limes and some frozen peaches left over from last summer (I don't hit the farmers market until Saturday when I will get fruit, fruit, sweet fruit). Because, as I have said, I am too tired to stand in a kitchen and beat butter (I can't even bear the thought of standing by the stand mixer while it beats butter), I am just going to have to hold on until tomorrow, when I am going to try to invent some kind of peach upside-down cake with a lime glaze. I think it will be good. I hope it will be good. Mostly, I think it will be a lot of fun to try. I love making upside-down cakes in my cast iron skillet.

While I was moaning on Facebook about craving lime-y treats, a friend recommended the key lime pie from Joe's Stone Crab (she's a food writer, so she ought to know about all kinds of deliciousness). I looked it up; I could order a pie for nearly $70 (a teeny tiny bit out of my price range) OR I could try this recipe, which I plan to do in the near future. I really want to try inventing my cake first though.

Another food notion that popped into my head was creating the perfect tomato pie. I am not sure what my criteria for perfection are yet, which will of course have an effect on said perfect pie. Obviously, no sog factor in the crust. Ew. The addition of some herbs and cheese would likely be nice, but which ones? Some experimentation may be in order. Also, I love fresh summer tomatoes (I mean who doesn't really?), but I think I want the tomatoes to feel almost dry like a sun-dried tomato. So, once the tomatoes start to hit, I may need to test some variations.
 
Oh yes, another thing I want to try: Different kinds of pesto. Obviously regular basil pesto is absolutely lovely and freezes nicely, letting you keep that fresh basil flavor all winter or at least as long as the pesto lasts, which may not be that long. But I also want to try making it with cilantro and pepitas. And I have heard that arugula and walnuts can be good. I recently "discovered" arugula and would love to use it more. What else might work? If you have ideas, let me know.

Of course, pasta is something I want to take on at some point. Given how important eating local and minimally processed foods is to me, I have to say I find it a tad embarrassing to buy any food in a box. I mean, it happens, of course, I am only human and I still live in a country with grocery stores, but I do tend to experience a twinge of shame even when I get a box of organic pasta. What I really want to try is this giant noodle. Looks like so much fun! I also want to try coloring pasta with beets, carrots, spinach, and whatever else I can think of because I completely, totally, absolutely adore color.

Generally I think I am a pretty good cook, but I find myself motivated to refine my skills. To pay more attention to nuances and the effects of taste and texture that I am trying to achieve.

Tune in tomorrow (or perhaps Saturday) to find out how the lime-glazed peach upside-down cake turns out.

Oh and to add a little eye candy to this post, here's a little something I drew today. It's after a photo of juvenile red-shouldered hawk. I made some mistakes while drawing it, but it's not too bad. I am trying to work on improving my drawing and painting skills as well.

  
Oh, and I made mayo today, but with a twist. (We had some leftover grilled chicken and I wanted to make sandwiches.) Instead of using lemon juice in the mayo recipe I use, I substituted lime juice, which turned out really well. I also reduced the oil by a quarter cup, with no discernible ill effects. I think I am going to try to reduce it some more and see how much low I can go.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

How to cook and dance at the same time

This is a public service announcement: Don't grate cheese and boogie at the same time.

I've been hammering away for days at a tough editing project, so food has gotten kind of short shrift at the homestead (Sorry family). Last night we got takeout. Who knows what we ate the day before. My head has been lost in a thick jungle of words that haven't made a whole lot of sense, and I had been slashing away with my editorial machete until my arms hurt and I lost my sight to a wicked migraine. Finally, today, I saw some light through the trees and finished up a rough section.

In need of a little R&R, I decided to throw on some tunes while cleaning up the kitchen and preparing my favorite go-to pasta dish. Mike and the Boo weren't home yet, so I decided to listen to ABBA--a nostalgia trip (I grew up in Sweden) and an invitation to dance (and not a favorite of my music snob of a husband).

The first song to come up was I Have a Dream, so I start to sway and sing along. Memories of being eight or nine years old, spending the summer with my cousin Tove in Stockholm, and putting on shows for the family with her started to break over me like crashing waves: "I have a dream/a song to sing/To help me cope with anything/If you see the wonder of a fairy tale/You can take the future even if you fail/" Then, the song rises up to "I believe in angels/Something good in everything I see," and my throat chokes up and tears slide down my face, even as I continue to sway and empty the dishwasher. Song after song, it goes like this: I am crying, my throat is too constricted to sing and yet I continue to force the notes out, and I am wondering: What the hell? It's ABBA, for pete's sake. Why am I crying?

But the crying feels good. It has that weird and wonderful cathartic feeling that laughing at a funeral can have when everyone is remembering someone they loved very much, telling goofy stories, and soaking in gratitude for life and the people who are still there with you. It's pain and it's joy rolled into one rich and overwhelming package--like eating something that's sweet and savory at the same time.

Next song up is Gimme Gimme Gimme (a Man After Midnight), the dishes are done. Time to make the pasta. I shimmy over to where I keep the big pasta pot, pick it up, twirl back to the sink and start filling it with water, toss a handful of salt in. While the pot is filling I get some some high kicks (or maybe not so high) going while I holler my head off (of course the back door is wide open, so I am keeping my eyes peeled for the neighbors). I boogie back to the sink, put the pot on the stove to boil. I grab a spring onion, a bundle of asparagus, two carrots, some bacon, and what's left of a box of sweet peas from the fridge.

I slice the spring onion and the carrots; snap the ends off the asparagus and cut it into one-inch pieces; peel some garlic; cut the ends off the peas. The bacon slides from the package, and "Mamma Mia, here I go again/My, my, how can I resist you?/Mamma Mia, does it show again?/My, my, just how much I missed you." Oh bacon, how much I've missed you. I haven't had any since Saturday. I slice it thinly.

The tears have dried up, the sweat is starting to flow, the bacon goes into a hot pan to render and fry into crispy little bits. "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line/Honey I'm still free, take a chance on me/If you need me, let me know, gonna be around." The water is boiling away, a pound of butterflies is in for a dip. The bacon fat has rendered out, the spring onion slices are in the pan, changing the scent in the room. Molecules tickle my nose, my memory, the smell of my Finnish grandmother's kitchen (crazy as a bedbug, I believe, but I remember the mouth feel and taste of her bread, of green salad with some strange but delicious white salad dressing). Mostly, there's a memory of feeling whole, in the right place, family all around, Tove's dad trying to make us laugh and twirling his handlebar mustache, the bowl of salad being passed around the table. Cool Nordic summer light drifts through the window. I am crying again. It all comes from a time when I was little, before my family broke irrevocably, and little has been whole since. In go the carrots, the asparagus, and the peas.


I bring back Gimme Gimme Gimme (a Man After Midnight) and pull out all the stops now. I am dusting off what steps I remember from years of dance classes while the vegetables cook in the pan and the pasta boils. I am busting some serious moves, even though I don't remember my joints being this stiff when I did them before. I am going to hurt tomorrow. I grate the Parmigiano Reggiano while bopping around. Turns out to be a mistake when I slice some skin off my thumb. No blood in the cheese though, and that's what matters.

Pasta is down to about three minutes on the boil, I pour a cup of half and half into the pan with the vegetables and add a cup of grated cheese (more actually, but I always like extra cheese). The sauce thickens in minutes. In go thyme and white pepper. When the pasta is cooked, I strain it, add it to the sauce, and stir. Dinner's done. Mike and the Boo aren't home yet. They went to the park. So I keep on dancing until they get home, and it's time to eat.


Base recipe for go-to pasta (will make enough for at least two dinners, which is helpful if you have little time to cook):

  • 1 lb dried pasta of any variety (butterflies and rotini are my usual picks) (cooked according to package directions--once again, when I make my own pasta, you will know about it)
  • Any combination of vegetables that are in season and hold their shape pretty well (in summer, tomatoes and bell peppers are good; fall, I could go with cauliflower cut into bite-size pieces; spring, asparagus and peas are awesome)
  • 4-5 slices of bacon (or more, if you like), sliced thinly (make sure to render it for the fat to the vegetables in)
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1 cup grated Parmegiano Reggiano
  • thyme, white pepper

Instructions (sans dancing)

  • cook the pasta
  • render the bacon and then let it get crispy
  • add vegetables (start with firmer vegetables that take longer to cook) (keep stirring them)
  • add the half and half and the cheese, season with thyme and white pepper (I don't usually add any salt because there is so much in the cheese and the bacon) and let it thicken
  • strain the pasta
  • add the pasta to the sauce and stir it on the heat
  • You are done! (If you feel like it, you can toss some chopped walnuts, pine nuts, grated cheese, or other things on top, but you really don't need it.)


              
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