Sausage and Baby Bellas with Pasta

Keeping with using what you have I made a quick dinner. I didn't want to spend a lot of time so I took out some of my homemade sausage which I froze on a cookie sheet then placed in a freezer bag so I could take out what I wanted without having to package them up in separate packets. I had also bought a big package of Baby Bellas which are little portabella mushrooms. Yummy. I didn't have any peppers or else this would have been a sausage scaloppini so I used what I had.

 

1/2 small onion chopped

6-7 mushrooms

1 pound of sausage (any kind will do)

1 large can of crushed tomatoes (I use Tuttorosso crushed with basil green label)

2 large cloves garlic or more to taste chopped

parsley

basil

black pepper

olive oil

grated cheese

Pasta of choice 1/2 pound

Aren't they lovely? Add  a little olive oil to fry pan and fry up your sausage. When just about finished add chopped garlic and onion and fry till slightly brown. Transfer to a pot, add tomatoes.

Shake in some basil, parsley and pepper. Simmer for about 15 min. Get your mushrooms ready. Wipe the mushrooms down with a dry cloth. Do not rinse them. It adds water to them. Slice them up and add to the pot.

 

Add about 1/2 handful of grated cheese. I used my own that I made.

Anyone want to know how to make this cheese? It's a great substitute to buying it in the store. Anyway, simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Meanwhile cook up your pasta (I used Penne) till al dente and drain. Mix the sausage mixture with the pasta and there you have it! Dish it up and add a little more cheese on top. If you use this type of pasta instead of spaghetti it doesn't soak up a lot of the sauce. But the choice is yours.

Simple enough! Add a salad and maybe some garlic bread and you have yourself a quick meal! Makes enough for 4.

Enjoy!

Steph
www.webdees.com
www.etsy.com/shop/deesshoppe

Beef and Shrimp over Linguini

I found myself with some cheek meat and limited vegetables to make a suitable stew. Actually I really wanted to try Boeuf Bourguignon but I didn't have any of the ingredients. So, in the spirit of this blog I used what I had. The result was so good I couldn't get enough of it. So here are the ingredients I did have and used.

1-1 1/2 cubed beef

1 16 oz. can Tuttorosso Crushed tomatoes (green can)

3 clove garlic chopped

Parsley 

Basil

Onion Powder

Hot pepper flakes

1/2 to 1 pound shrimp uncooked peeled and soaking in salt water

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound or less Linguini or other pasta

 

In a dutch oven add some olive oil about 4 tablespoon heat till hot. Dry the beef cubes really well. They won't brown otherwise (per Julia Child). Don't crowd and transfer to a plate till all are well browned. Add your chopped garlic and cook slightly. Don't burn! Add your can of tomatoes, the meat, sprinkle some onion powder and hot pepper flakes (adds a little spice to it), basil and parsley, liberally. Stir and cover. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for 2-3 hours. Stir occasionally. What will happen is the acid in the tomato will break down the meat making it very tender! Meanwhile, peel your shrimp and put in cold salty water. The salt water will plump up your shrimp. My brother always wondered why my shrimp were always so plump and tender...now you know!

 

Now check your beef and tomato. The gravy should be by now a deep red and smell really good! Add your shrimp and cook about 15 minutes or until shrimp it cooked. Cook your pasta in slightly salted water and drain when tender. Since I didn't want to use another bowl I dumped the drained pasta into the dutch oven and stirred to coat the pasta. Serve. Makes about 4-6 servings.

It's like surf and turf in one bowl! Add some garlic bread and a salad and you have a great meal!

Let me know how yours comes out!

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Steph

www.webdees.com

www.etsy.com/shop/deesshoppe



Pasta and Goodness-Veal and Sausage

As I have mentioned before, it's all about saving money and using what you have. I remember weekends at my Nana's and baking with half the ingredients that the recipe called for. We would either substitute or leave out what she didn't have on hand. It was always an adventure and was always good. Even if it didn't look too good! But hey, it was fun. I have so many memories of those times and I have always cooked the same way. So if you don't have all the ingredients to make a traditional dish make one of your own! Here I made what I had on hand and it was very good. More than good it was great! Let's take a step back and think about the money saving thing. Even though Italian cooking, for maybe you, is something that you may think is exact (I am full blood Italian),  rules can be broken. Make it your own is what I say. So here is what I made and let me tell you it is really good. You can change the meats or omit and put in other things, it doesn't matter. The exercise for this is to make what you can with what you have on hand and satisfy your family. Mushrooms, peppers (easy on the peppers, they tend to dominate the taste of what ever you put them in unless of course if you use roasted red peppers)  sausage, meat of any kind. The combinations are endless. So, back to what I made. I had a package of veal, and a package of Primo sausage and half pound mozzarella.

 I used penna pasta which is my fav but you can use what ever you have on hand. That is the purpose...use what you have.

 

Let me start with a basic sort of marinara sauce. Chop up a couple clove of garlic, some onion, I prefer crushed tomato (see pic), fresh or dried parsley, basil, salt, pepper and optional grated cheese ( I use my home made cheese-only if you ask me to blog that!)

 

Fry up the garlic, onion in some olive oil, add the meat till browned, add tomato and herbs. dash or two of salt and pepper and simmer for about 40 minutes in your cooker.

The veal which I took out to brown the sausage.

We are super cooking here. You can do the long cook way and wait for about two hours if you wish in a regular pot. Cook pasta,

mix with some of your sauce and add to dish with cooked pasta and topped with mozzarella bake in oven 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Finish up with some of your homemade bread

toasted and wow.

A nice hearty meal to feed the masses!

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Steph

www.webdees.com

www.etsy.com/shop/deesshoppe

Homemade Gnocchi

Hi everyone! Sorry haven't posted anything lately. Been a little busy with other stuff. Tonight I made homemade cheese gnocchi. They are Italian dumplings. They come in two different types, cheese and potato. I made the cheese kind using Ricotta. We are having gnocchi for our Thanksgiving dinner as a side dish and we also had it for dinner tonight. I purposely made a lot to freeze. Let's begin.

32 oz Ricotta

1 tablespoon salt

garlic powder

1 cup Grated cheese (Romano or Parmigiano)

6 eggs

4+ cups Flour

 

Beat the eggs, ricotta, salt, garlic powder together. Add grated cheese and a couple of cups of flour. Gradually add more flour till you can make a ball that is not sticky.

Refrigerate for several hours or store overnight in fridge and finish the next night. Cut off a handful and roll into long rolls about 3/4 inch thick. Cut in no more than 1/2 inch sections.

At this point you can either pop them into boiling water seasoned with salt or spread on a wax paper lined cookie sheets and freeze before placing them in a bag for storage in the freezer. Cook them for about 10 min after they start to float to the top and scoop out with slotted spoon. They will be considerably bigger as they puff up. Top with melted butter, salt, pepper and grated cheese or your favorite tomato sauce and mozzarella.

Serve with garlic bread and a nice salad! If this is too much for you by all means cut the recipe in half in half. There is nothing like fresh!

 

Enjoy!

 

Steph

www.webdees.com

www.etsy.com/shop/deesshoppe