Bread and Jam

Spicy Skillet Pasta with Chicken Italian Sausage

This is one of my favorite pasta dishes to make on a weeknight because it doesn't require a lot of time and there's not much clean up. It's also a recipe that can be easily adjusted spice-wise to your own taste. If you're not a fan of spice, feel free to substitute the spicy Italian sausage with sweet, or simply omit the red pepper flakes. If you're like me and actually like your eyes to water a bit, stick with the spicy sausage and add as many pepper flakes as you like. And,if you're having guests, you can actually make two separate skillets of this dish -  one mild, one medium-hot.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 cup onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 pound Spicy Italian sausage, removed from casing (chicken or pork)

1 28-oz can diced or crushed tomatoes

2/3 cup whipping cream or half & half

1 pound bow-tie pasta

Fresh basil & Parmesan

Heat your oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and crushed red pepper and sauté until sausage is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. You can break it up with your spoon into small chunks as it cooks. Add your onion and garlic and sauté about 3 minutes longer. Add your tomatoes and cream (or half & half) and reduce heat to low, simmering for 5 minutes. Add a sprinkle or two of salt to taste.

Cook your pasta in large pot of boiling water until just slightly tender but still firm to bite. Drain and add to sausage mixture, stirring until pasta is well-coated by sauce. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Transfer to a nice serving dish and garnish with chopped basil and serve with fresh grated Parmesan. Note: Try to use fresh basil if possible for this dish. I was out of fresh basil when I recently made it and used dried basil instead. The dish was still delicious but the fresh basil adds a more intense flavor. Enjoy!

Guacamole

My sister-in-law Cindy makes the best guacamole ever. It tastes exactly like the kind I remember eating in the rural kitchens of Mexico. She insists that the secret is using a molcajete to mix the guacamole. The molcajete is a stone bowl and pestle made of volcanic rock. Using the pestle to grind and press the ingredients together releases the juices of the pepper, onion and cilantro - as opposed to simply stirring the ingredients into a batch of guacamole whole.

Molcajetes are becoming more widely available at culinary stores and online, however, be sure to do your research before selecting the one you want. Some come pre-treated while others you must treat yourself by grinding rice into the bowl with the pestle to remove any loose volcanic particles. You'll also want to make sure it's made of real volcanic rock and not concrete. The pic above is a batch of guac that Cindy made for me in her molcajete. She's happy with the quality of hers but said she would opt for a larger one next time since this one is meant for small batches. So give this recipe a try and enjoy it with your favorite tortilla chips and salsa or even on a sandwich. I really like it on turkey burgers with some thin slices of red onion or as dressing in a wrap.

Guacamole

1 large serrano pepper, seeded and chopped

3 heaping Tbsp. chopped cilantro

1 Tbsp. chopped onion

3 ripe avocados

1 large plum tomato, seeded and chopped

1/4 to 1/2 lime, juiced

sea salt (to taste)

Using the pestle, grind together your serrano, cilantro and onion in the molcajete, releasing juices. Slice your avocados lengthwise around the pit and twist apart. Tap the base of your knife to the pit, giving the knife a quick twist to remove the pit. Use a spoon to scoop out the inside. Add the avocados, chopped tomato, lime juice and sea salt to the molcajete, mixing gently with the pestle. (Base your lime juice and salt amount to personal taste.)

Baked Eggplant with Mozzarella and Zucchini

The local Ritz Carlton has been offering a series of culinary classes with cultural themes and the February class was centered around dishes from Southern Italy. I wish I could have bottled the smell of the kitchen that evening. Garlic and olive oil with pancetta and leeks....fresh basil, oregano, the works. Chef Alejandro Garza demonstrated this eggplant dish along with Spaghetti Alle Vongole, Braciole Alla Pizzaiola, Potatoes with Fontina and Pancetta, and Zabaglione with fresh berries. The Zabaglione was so delicious and unlike any custard I've had before and flavored with amaretto. I'll post all of the recipes shortly, but in the meantime, give this eggplant dish a try.

Baked Eggplant with Mozzarella and Zucchini
2 eggplant
8 cloves minced garlic
2 ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled and chopped
10 oz. fresh mozzarella, sliced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 oz chopped basil
1 zucchini, sliced
1 oz bread crumbs

Peel and slice your eggplant and zucchini and sprinkle with salt. Using paper towels, press the eggplant and zucchini for about two hours so most of the juices drain out. While this is draining, you can get your sauce together.

Saute the garlic in some olive oil for a few minutes and then add the tomatoes, as well as some sea salt and pepper to taste. Let this simmer together for about 40 minutes. Once your eggplant and zucchini are ready, fry in 1/2 inch olive oil until golden brown. In a baking dish, spread a layer of sauce, eggplant, zucchini and mozzarella. Top with basil and continue with another layer. Finish with bread crumbs and bake at 325 F for 20 minutes until browned.

Cooking with Jamie

I really love my Jamie Oliver cookbooks. The recipes are straightforward and always delicious, and for me, half the fun is reading through the books themselves. The layouts are artsy and full of stories by Jamie about real people and their food. I also appreciate the photography and food styling being so realistic. You'll notice the cobbler has some gooey filling baked along the edge of the dish and the pie crusts aren't perfectly crimped. It's real food, plain and simple.

One of my favorite soup recipes to make lately is the Spanish Chickpea and Chorizo Soup from Jamie's Dinners. If you aren't a fan of pork you can get really good chicken chorizo from Whole Foods. So pork or chicken, just be sure it's chorizo for this recipe as it really is key for this soup.

Spanish Chickpea and Chorizo Soup

5 1/2 oz chorizo sausage, finely chopped

1 onion peeled and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic peeled and finely chopped

2 sticks celery, finely chopped

1 lb fresh spinach, chopped

8 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 14 oz can chick peas, drained

5 cups chicken stock

2 oz prosciutto, finely chopped

2 hard boiled eggs(optional)

Put a couple of tablespoons olive oil into a large pot and cook the chorizo for a few minutes. Add the onion, garlic and celery. Turn the heat down and cook slowly for 15 minutes with a lid on and without browning the onions. Add your spinach, tomatoes, chick peas and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove 1/3 of soup and puree in a blender or food processor and return to the pot, stirring well and adding sea salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and stir in the prosciutto and some extra virgin olive oil. Divide into bowls and serve with grated hard boiled egg on top.

Roasted Squash (so easy)

 
It's funny that as a child, you couldn't get me to eat squash unless there was a thick layer of marshmallows baked over the top of it. Now it's one of my favorite vegetables and I've found so many great ways to prepare it! For Butternut squash, I really like it in a soup or sliced in a stir fry. I think I enjoy Buttercup varieties best when they're baked and will sometimes add chopped walnuts or diced apples midway through the baking time. As for the Acorn squash that I had tonight, I think it tastes best roasted and it's really easy to do.

Preheat your oven to 400 F. Slice the squash in half and clean out the seeds and fibers. I take a teaspoon of olive oil for each side and rub this into the center and up the inside of the squash. I also take a teaspoon of honey and do the same, rubbing this right over top of the olive oil. Sprinkle a little bit of sea salt over top of this and then dust with cinnamon. (You can omit the cinnamon if you're not a fan but I love the flavor of it with the honey when it glazes.) Place in a shallow baking dish (stem side down) and roast uncovered for about 45 minutes to an hour. It looks so beautiful when you pull it out of the oven, all golden and bubbly. You can scoop it out and serve it in a bowl but I think it's nice to use as a bowl itself, depending on what you're serving it with. When my friend Janice and I went to dinner a few weeks ago, we were marvelling at the paella I ordered because it was served in a roasted acorn squash. For once in my life, I did not have my camera to take that beautiful food pic so you'll just have to imagine it, but it was such a great presentation with a little rosemary sprig. We had some amazing Scottish pudding cake and chocolate mousse torte that night as well so I was really sad not to have the pics. Although, I suppose it's a good reason for me to go back for more Scottish pudding cake and chocolate mousse torte so I can take pics to share with you and we can try to replicate the recipes.