Sausage and Garlic Pasta

I stumbled across this recipe from a Nigel Slater book. The picture caught my attention first followed by the ease of making the dish. The original recipe calls for fresh thyme and no sausage although I think he does mention that you can add sausage or chorizo to the pasta.

I normally strip the sausage meat from the skin and break the sausage up into bite size pieces before pan frying them but today I bought the wrong sausages so I just sliced them instead. Any flavored sausage works well although I do try to avoid heavily herbs sausages as they can take the flavor away from the fresh herbs in the pasta sauce.

You also want to try to use a pasta that can hold the sauce. Pasta shells and penne would work well unlike tagaletelli or linguine where the sauce will slip off. I make this recipe by eye so the recipe below only gives an approximate amount of ingredients, so go with your gut feeling

Sausage and Garlic Pasta (serves 2-3)

2 Medium Garlic Bulbs

2 Cups Pasta (Fusilli)

1 Cup Half and half

2-3 Sausages

1Tbsp of finely chopped fresh Oregano

Salt and Pepper

Oil

Firstly you will need to roast the garlic bulbs. Place the garlic onto a piece of foil. Sprinkle with Oil and seal the foil around the garlic. Roast in a pre heated oven at 350 for approx 30 minutes or until the garlic is soft. When roasted alllow to cool before squeezing out all the garlic from the cloves.. Meanwhile strip the sausages from their skin and fry off bite size pieces in a skillet. Drain off any fat and remove the sausage. Over a medium heat add the roasted garlic to the skillet and some of the cream. Mash the garlic with the back of the spoon and combine with the cream. Simmer until the sauce gets thicker and keep adding the cream until you get the right consistency and enough sauce.(The longer you simmer it for the thicker it will become). Season with salt and pepper and add the oregano and the sausage. Stir to combine. Cook the pasta until al dente and add to the skillet and coat well in the sauce. Serve immediately alongside a crisp salad. Sprinkle wit Parmesan cheese if desired.

Patatas Bravas

Wow, isn't it amazing what you can create with nothing. I open my fridge and to me I see lots of potential but to others it would look bare and the ingredients wouldn't match up to much. From a few basic ingredients I managed to make a gourmet feast with a Spanish tapas theme.

I was very impressed if I do say so myself. I was particularly impressed with my patatas bravas. Originally I was going to buy some Italian sausages but the supermarket had run out so I opted for honey mustard sausages, which actually worked quite well, but to get the authentic flavor, Italian or chorizo sausage would have been better. But hey ho you can't win em' all!!!

I originally had patatas bravas in Barcelona. I went to my first tapas restaurant and I fell in love with this dish and style of eating. On return from Barcelona a friend and I couldn't get  enough of  tapas, we found an awesome restaurant in Putney, London called La Mancha, which we often frequented and patatas bravas was a regular. 

My version of Patatas bravas

Handful of new potatoes cooked and sliced thickly

2 Sausages

1 Large Tomato chopped

I Tbsp Tomato Paste

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Smoked Paprika

Pinch Salt

Pinch sugar

Pinch Red Chilli Flakes

1 tsp White wine vinegar

Chicken Stock

Oil

Garlic clove crushed

Firstly heat some oil in a pan and cook the sausages until they have browned. Remove from the pan and slice into1/4 inch pieces. In the same pan fry the sliced potatoes until browned and remove from pan. Add some more oil to pan if need and add tomatoes, garlic, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, spices and salt. Mix these together in the pan to combine. When the tomatoes begin to soften, crush them with the back of a spoon into the sauce. If the sauce is to thick add some chicken stock to loosen it up. Return the potatoes and sausages to the pan and warm through. Add further salt if needed. Then serve....

Themes

I love to plan a meal with a theme in mind. This week I was adamant to make a traditional Indian curry with homemade rotis. I was inspired by a conversation I had overheard by two collegues at work. I rushed home with the plan of making and experimenting with the making of roti. I turned on the laptop typed roti into the google task bar and picked out the elements I liked of all the recipes seen. I went into action mixing the flour and water together to make the dough and within 5- 10 minutes I was rolling them out into flat discs and dry pan frying them. Everything went so well. I waited until small brown dots appeared on the roti and flipped the disc over to cook the underside. The only issue I was having was getting the roti to puff up. After several attempts I had it cracked. I gorged on my achievement with a generous amount of mango chutney. I was happy. This lead me think of themes closer to home. Irish soda bread and Dublin Coddle. Yes I know I'm from England but I miss foods that are closer to home and Irish food often appears in our old pubs, and old pubs is what I am missing the most. Nothing beats that feeling from having a long walk it the countryside and then spending  the whole afternoon in a traditional pub eating traditional foods whilst washing it down with a good beer. (Ahhh the old times). Ian loves to have hearty comfort food, so with him in mind and my fondness of experimenting with foods Dublin Coddle here we come.

I ventured down to the market to gather all the ingredients needed. I always go to the same butcher as they know exactly what I need. I was after thick pork sausages and either thick cut bacon or a small ham. I had thought that bacon may cause the stew to be too salty and after talking to the butcher I chose a small ham that I could dice up into bite size pieces. If extra salt was needed I could always add it during the cooking process A small bag of red new potatoes, a yellow onion and a handful of fresh parsley was also purchased. On return from the market I couldn't stop myself from visiting 'The Lobster Man' where I picked up some oysters to go with our Irish themed meal (An after thought, but a good one at that!!). I poached the sausages and bacon in water and then began to cut the veggies up adding them to the pan and letting the broth gently simmer for around an hour. The smell from the kitchen was amazing and I couldn't help myself from picking at the cubes of ham.  Salt, pepper and chopped parsley finished the stew off nicely. Big chunks of fresh bread helped mop up the gravy (in my opinion that is the best bit). .

Dublin Coddle (Serves 2)

2 Thick Slices of Ham cubed

2 Thick Pork sausages

Red New Potatoes

1 medium Yellow Onion

2 Cups Water

Salt & Pepper

Fresh Parsley

In a large saucepan add the sausage, diced ham and water and bring to a simmer. Poach the meat for approx 5-10 minutes. Drain off the cooking liquor reserving it for later use. Remove the meat from the pan and cut the sausages into inch thick pieces. Don't worry if the sausage is raw in the middle, it will be cooked through later. Cut the potatoes in half and dice the onion thickly placing them in the bottom of the pan. Add the meat to the pan and cover with the reserved cooking liquor. If you need more liquor add some more water. Season with pepper and more salt if needed. Cover and simmer for approx 1 hour stirring occasionally. Remove the lid halfway through cooking to allow the broth to reduce and thicken slightly. The potatoes will turn soft and often break up (helping the stock to thicken). I like to add a few further potatoes at this stage as these ones will remain whole when cooked through. When the potatoes are tender add further seasoning if needed and finish off with a handful of chopped parsley. Serve with soda bread for an originally Irish meal.

Comfort food

So now I have a little more time on my hands my culinary mind has gone into overdrive. There are new recipes that I want to experiment with and at present I am trying to do new twists on classic recipes. Last night I had planned to make an Italian sausage lasagna, exchanging the tomato sauce for a roasted red pepper sauce and adding spinach to the bechamel sauce. I had some left over homemade pasta that spent the day happily thawing out on the kitchen counter, therefore all of last nights dinner was homemade. Not bad considering I came off nights that morning.

I love leftovers, especially when you can make a meal out of them. I have some pork belly in the freezer and I plan to make some duck confit before Christmas. I am hoping that I can make a cassoulet with these ingredients using an altered version of my homemade baked beans. I can't wait to make this, but firstly lets get the recipe for last nights feast..

Italian Sausage Lasagna


Italian Sausage Meat
1 Large Onion
5 Red Peppers
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Sprigs Thyme
1 Can Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Milk
Cheese (Parmesan)
Nutmeg
2 Tbsp Flour
Knob of butter
Spinach
Lasagna Sheets

Firstly cut the peppers in half and arrange skin side up on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and put under a hot grill until the skins turn black. Make sure you keep an eye on them as they turn very quickly. Remove from the grill and carefully peal off the blackened skin and remove the seeds. Slice finely. Dice the onion finely along with the garlic, add these to a well oiled pan and simmer until translucent, then add the can of tomatoes and the red peppers. Bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper and blitz into a smooth sauce. Lastly add some thyme leaves.

Fry the sausage meat until brown and drain off any excess fat. Add the roasted pepper sauce to the sausage and simmer for 5-10 mins. Meanwhile you can make your bechamel sauce. In a pan set over a medium heat make your rue. Melt the butter and add the flour. Stir until you get a thick paste, then start to whisk in your milk slowly until you get the desired thickness of sauce. (Make sure you keep stirring the sauce otherwise you may get lumps, the paste should dissolve into the milk). Add a cup of grated cheese to the bechamel sauce. You can use whatever cheese you like, I used parmesan and cheddar. Finally wilt some spinach, squeeze out any excess water, chop finely and add to the cheese sauce. Season with salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.

Now its time to assemble the lasagna. Grease a deep oven proof dish to stop the pasta sheets from sticking to it.  Place a layer of lasagna sheets in the bottom of the dish, layer with the cheese sauce, then the sausage mixture, then another layer of lasagna sheets and so on. Keep doing this until finished. I like to finish with a layer of lasagna sheets, followed by a layer of the cheese sauce and then sprinkle the top with parmesan to get a nice crunchy finish.

The last step needed now is to bake the lasagna, prior to serving. (Unbaked lasagna's will keep in the fridge for a  a couple of days before baking. You can also freeze it and when needed thaw and then bake). To bake the lasagna pre-heat the oven to 350 and bake for approx 30 -40 mins or until the top turns nice and brown. Serve with a nice spinach salad.

I have some roasted red pepper sauce left over which is going into the freezer to create another dish, maybe ratatouille!!!