Cooking Italy: Sausages and Cream Sauce

This is a dangerous recipe.

Dangerously good I mean.

This weeks recipe is from my blogging friends over at Cooking Italy where we are cooking our way through Marcella Hazan's book "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking." And speaking as a former (and occasionally relapsing Chef Boyardee girl) this book will change the way you look at Italian food. Marcella's book covers all the regions of Italy which makes it a completely awesome all around comprehensive book for Italian Cooking.

Which of course does not stop me from buying more Italian cookbooks. But so far I haven't found one that I've actually cooked from lately.

The thing I like most about this recipe is how simple it is to put together. Boil up some Fusili pasta, assemble the sauce below and within about 20 minutes you have a totally yummy dinner. I would definitely make this one again. The only thing I might change would be to double the sauce as I like a generous serving of sauce with my pasta. Okay, so maybe I was a little too generous with tasting while I was cooking it too.

SAUSAGES AND CREAM SAUCE 
1/2 lb Sweet Sausage (containing no fennel, chili pepper or other strong seasonings)
1 1/2 tbsp chopped oinion
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Black Pepper
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Salt
1 pound pasta
Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese

Skin the sausage and crumble (I found this to be much easier once it had started to cook).

Place onion, vegetable oil and butter in pan on medium heat and cook until the onion becomes a pale gold. Add sausage and cook for 10 minutes. Add pepper and cream, turn heat to medium high and cook until cream thickens. Toss sauce with cooked drained pasta and serve immediately with parmesan cheese on the side.

Enjoy!

Cooking Italy: Amatriciana (Tomato Sauce with Pancetta & Chile Pepper)

This weeks recipe for the Cooking Italy Group was Amatriciana (Tomato Sauce with Pancetta & Chile Pepper). 

Before we talk about the recipe, I should explain. I grew up a Chef Boyardee kind of girl. Canned, jarred, it made no difference. Just dump it in a pot, heat it up dump it on a plate and call it dinner. After I read the recipe, I was a bit underwhelmed by the ingredients and pretty sure it was not going to taste all that great.

I am happy to be very wrong.

And I am now forever spoiled when it comes to Italian food now thanks to Marcella Hazan.

The only mistake I would say I made was starting to cook the sauce before i had the water boiling but that's because my pots take forever to boil water, even if i crank it to high. So I had the sauce done before the water even began to full boil and had to wait another 15 minutes with it simmering before I had cooked pasta.

The biggest surprise though was how good it tasted. You have to realize that I have flirted with cooking before so I know how good some things can taste homemade versus processed. But I think this was the first time that I've made pasta sauce from scratch that didn't involve sugar and a lot of ingredients.  The Amatriciana just had tomatoes, bacon (BACON! BACON! BACON BACON BACON!), onions, salt, white pepper, parmesan cheese and  romano cheese.

Seriously though. Real food tastes amazing when you just eat it as it's supposed to be. Only shame is I didn't discover this earlier.

Even more amazing was that it wasn't too difficult to make. I cheated a bit by using regular bacon instead of pancetta. Also I am not a chile pepper girl (or spicy foods in general) so I used white pepper in its place.Also, I used Penne pasta in place of the bucatini as it was a lot easier to find at Jewel. But this is still a keeper in my house now.

Amatriciana Sauce with Penne Pasta

from Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp butter

1 medium onion chopped fine

1/4 inch slice pancetta cut into 1/2 wide/1 inch long slices

1 1/2 cups plum tomato(drained & cut)

pepper to taste (original recipe called for chili pepper)

salt

3 tbsp parmigana reggiano cheese

2 tbsp romano cheese

1 pound penne pasta

Put oil, butter and onion in saucepan and turn heat to medium. Saute onion until pale gold, then add pancetta. Cook for one minute, stirring once or twice. Add tomatoes,pepper and salt and cook in uncovered pot at a steady, gentle simmer for 25 minutes. Toss pasta with sauce then add cheeses and toss again.

Pasta Bolognese

Pasta Bolognese has got to be my favorite/go-to recipe that I always trot out when my sister comes to visit. Today, I decided in celebration of the 3 day weekend, I was going to make it for myself.

I found the recipe in a book I picked up years ago from a cookbook store that has long since gone out of business (fortunately for me as I work very close to said area). And it is a fairly fool proof recipe providing the pasta doesn't overcook. However, I always forget that it's half a pound of meat not a full pound. But it's still yummy. And who would have thought it...getting all the ingredients together before cooking made it a lot easier.


Pasta Bolognese
from "Quick from Scratch Pasta (Food & Wine Series)

Serves 4

2 TBSP Butter
1/4 pound sliced bacon, cut into 1/4 inch strips
1 onion, chopped
1/2 lb ground beef (I use turkey)
1 cup canned low sodium beef or chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 TBSP tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper (I used jarred)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 lb spaghetti
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

1. In a large frying pan, heat the butter and bacon over moderately low heat. Cook until the bacon renders some of it's fat, about 3 minutes. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften, about 3 minutes longer.
   
2. Stir in ground beef and cook unitl meat is no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Add the broth, wine, tomato paste, oregano, salt, and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, about 25 minutes. Stir in the cream and remove from heat.
   
3. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the spaghetti until just done, about 12 minutes. Drain and toss with the sauce and parsley.