Accidental Hedonist

Potatoes can be used either for flavoring or as a thickening agent. This soup uses potatoes as a thickening agent, as the peppers, kale and chorizo easily dominate. In my opinion, it’s easily a winter soup yet uses no cream.

We won’t hold the lack of cream against this recipe.

I liked this dish, but Tara came out against it. The lack of potato taste was mentioned as one of the reasons for the negative reaction. However, if you like spicy, this dish is one that should be tried.

• 3 links chorizo sausage
• 1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, skinned and cut into 1″ pieces
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 lb Kale, chopped
• cayenne pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp ground bloack pepper
• 12 slices french bread, toasted

Pierce the sausages and place them in a skillet. Add just enough water to the skillet that the chorizo is barely covered. Bring the water to a simmer (185 degrees F). Cover the skillet with a well fitting lid, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the skillet, and slice into 1/2″ pieces. Set aside.

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook those for 15-17 minutes. Drain, saving about a ladle-ful of the water. Mash the potatoes well, and add a little of the saved water and stir into a paste. Add more water if needed. Set aside.

In a large stock pot, bring the chicken stock to a rolling boil. Add the chopped kale and slices of sausages and lower the heat, bringing the water to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes.

Stir in potato paste slowly, until all has been used. Simmer for another 20 minutes. Add the ground pepper and cayenne and stir in well.

Place a slice or two of the toasted bread into the soup dish. Ladle soup over top. Serve.

Serves 6-8

Technorati Tags: Food and Drink, Recipes, Soups, Kale, Chorizo

Honestly? This turned out better than I had hoped. I’m not a big corn fan, but I can imagine myself making this again. Much better than the fish I made to put on the side, but that’s another story.

If you season this chowder with Tabasco, err on the conservative side, as it can easily overwhelm the corn. But Tabasco + sour cream = food happiness.

• 4 cup chicken broth or stock
• 1 cup water, plus additional as needed
• 4 ears corns, husks and silk removed (divided)
• 1 tbl olive oil
• 8 oz fresh chorizo sausage, meat removed from casings
• 1 med onion, diced
• 2 stalk celery, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 lb all-purpose russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• sour cream
• Cilantro (or parsley)
• Tabasco (optional)

In a medium pot over medium-high heat, bring the broth and the 1 cup water to a boil. Break 2 ears of corn in half, place them in the broth and boil for 5 minutes. Using tongs, carefully remove the ears of corn and transfer them to a plate to cool. Reduce the heat to medium low. The broth should maintain a gentle simmer.

While the broth simmers, shave the corn from the remaining 2 ears of corn. Break the shaved cobs in half and add them to the simmering broth. Set the uncooked corn kernels aside. Working in the same fashion, remove the cooked corn kernels from the cobs.Return those shaved cobs to the simmering broth as well.

Transfer the cooked corn to a food processor or blender. Add 1 cup hot broth. Process until the cooked kernels are pureed, then set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat and add the sausage. Break it up into bite-size pieces and cook until it begins to brown (approx. 5 minutes). Add the onion and celery to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables soften (8 to 10 minutes).

Remove the cobs from the broth and discard. Measure the broth. If you have less than 3 cups, add as much water as necessary to measure 3 cups.

To the chorizo and vegetables in the pot, add the broth, reserved uncooked corn kernels, reserved corn puree, potatoes and salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, so the soup just barely boils, and cook until the potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly.

Serve with cilantro, sour cream and Tabasco.

Serves 8-12

This Italian dish is translated to roughly “Naked Ravioli with Mascarpone”, meaning it’s Ravioli without the pasta. Hence, meat only with cheese sauce. Oi, and what a cheese sauce.

This is the kind of dish that you’re embarrassed to tell your doctor that you’ve eaten. Let’s see.. we have pork, butter, heavy cream and mascarpone. There’s not a damn thing light about this dish. And this is the way we like it.

• 4 oz Prosciutto
• 4 oz Pancetta, in one piece
• 3/4 lb. Ground Italian sausage
• 4 tbl Unsalted butter, room temp
• 4 Extra-large eggs
• 3/4 cup Bread crumbs, unseasoned
• 5 tbl Parmesan cheese, grated
• Salt & black pepper to taste
• 2 qt Chicken broth
• 8 tbl Unsalted butter
• 1/2 lb Mascarpone
• 1/2 cup Heavy cream
• 1 pch Freshly grated nutmeg
• Parmesan cheese, grated
• Italian parsley, chopped

The size of the pancetta or prosciutto doesn’t matter, as you’re going to grind it up in your food processor.

Then, in a glass bowl, mix the ground pancetta and prosciutto with the ground Italian sausage Add the eggs and butter, mixing well enough so that you cannot see any butter. Pour in the bread crumbs and 5 Tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese and thoroughly incorporate. Salt and pepper to taste and cover with Saran wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 60 minutes.

After the hour, bring the chicken broth to a rolling boil in a large soup or stock pot. While waiting for the broth to boil, feel free to roll the ground pork into balls about the size of a SuperBall (about the diameter of an American Silver Dollar).

Place a large skillet on a second burner and place over medium low heat. Place all 8 Tablespoons of butter in skillet and allow to melt.

Once the broth starts to boil, place a few meatballs into broth and cook. When the meatballs float uninterrupted, spoon them out and place in the skillet with the melted butter. Repeat this process until all the meatballs have been cooked.

Add the mascarpone and heavy cream to the skillet. Mix very well and simmer for 1 or 2 minutes, until the mascarpone is completely dissolved. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Mix well, then transfer to a warmed serving platter. Serve immediately, topped with Parmesan Cheese and Parsley.

Serves 8

Apologies for the lighting in the pic. One of my overheads is being tempermental of late, so I had to rely solely on the light over the stove. Bleh.

I had to do this recipe. Had to. Seriously.

If you haven’t figured out, I’m a bit of a pasta freak. For me, pasta is perfection. It’s magic. Who would guess that water, flour, salt and egg can be altered so that it forms this solid object that holds sauce so well.

So when researching Umbrian recipes, I came across this one below, and had to alter my unwritten rule of three recipes per region (I also try to do a dessert and at least mention wine).

The meal was not bad. Think carbonarra made with sausage in addition to panchetta. The trick here is what kind of sausage. I used a mild Italian sausage from Larry’s, but I have to admit to feeling a bit guilty about it. “Italian” sausage can mean anything. In truth, I have no idea if the Italian sausage found in most American supermarkets is even “Italian” let alone “Umbrian”. I’ll never truly know until I’m able to make it to Italy.

The recipe is still worth trying. Easy to make (less than 30 minutes from pouring the water into the stock pot to plating the dish), it fits quite nicely into a weekday menu.

Onto the recipe:

• 1 lb. rigatoni
• 3/4 lb. Mild ground Italian Sausage
• 3 strips panchetta, diced (smoked bacon will do if panchetta cannot be found…but really, try to find panchetta)
• black pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (Pecorino will also work)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Italian Parsley. shredded

In a stock pan, bring your pasta water to a boil. Before putting the rigatoni into the water, place a large skillet over medium high heat and allow to become hot.

Add Rigatoni to boiling water and cook according to directions on box.

While rigatoni is cooking, add panchetta and sausage to skillet. Brown thoroughly (5-7 minutes). Do NOT drain any excessive pork fat. Pepper the meat to taste. Add cheese and cream and mix in well, lowering heat of skillet to low. Cook, stirring regularly, until pasta is done.

Drain pasta and place in a warm serving bowl. Dress with olive oil. Pour sauce over top of pasta and fold in well with a spatula.

Plate and top with Italian Parsley and cheese (to taste).

Serves 6-8

This ended up being not one of my better recipes. It was…okaaayy…but it was still missing something for me. Part of me wanted to add red pepper flakes or anchovy sauce to the lentils, but I withheld, wanting to hold to the recipe as it stood. I may try differently in the future.

Two notes:
1) This dish is traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve in Italy. It makes it the second New Years recipe I have on this site. Note that I have zero recipes for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I must consider this anamoly.

2) The Olive oil bit in this recipe is essential(and I don’t use that word lightly). Without it, the lentils dry up and give you a less than stellar dish.

• 1 lb Italian Sausage, links (cotechino if you can find it, but hot Italian sausage will do in a pinch)
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 whole black peppercorns
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 7 cups water
• 1 lb. dried, green lentils
• 1 white onion, quartered
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large carrot, quartered
• salt & pepper (to taste)
• 4 cups water
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 bunch of chopped Italian Parsley

Take the italian sausage, and pierce it with a fork in several places. Place in the bottom of a stock pot, and fry for 2-3 minutes (do this to give the sausage some brown fronds that make the sausages sing). Add chopped onions, bay leaf, thymeand peppercorns. Fry for one more minute and then cover with seven cups of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer for 45-50 minutes.

In a seperate pot (3 quart soup pot), add the lentils, quartered onions, garlic, bay leaf, carrot and salt & pepper. Cover with water and also bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 40-45 minutes or until lentils are soft. Add more water if needed.

When lentils are complete remove onion, garlic, bay leaf and carrot. Spoon lentils onto a serving dish and drizzle with olive oil (This is the important part I told you about up top). Slice up pieces of Italian sausage onto bed of lentils.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Serves 4-6

Creamier than I expected, this quiche ended up near perfect.

• 1/2 lb. mild Italian Sausage
• 1/2 cup chopped sweet yellow onion
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1 large Red Delicious Apple, pared and cut into 1/2″ cubes
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups whole Milk
• 1 9″ pie shell

Pre-heat ovento 350 Degrees F.

In a skillet, fry up the Italian sausage, onion and thyme. Cook until onions are translucent. Remove from heat, drain off any excess fat and set aside.

In a bowl, toss apple cubes with lemon juice and sugar. Add eggs, milk and cheese, mixing well. Pour into pie shell. Dot the top with sausage.

Place quiche into oven and Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to set for 15 minutes.

Serves 6

Okay, okay. Quick question… who can tell me what teh difference is between an omelette and a frittata?

*taps foot* I’m waiting…

BUZZ! Times up! The difference is easy actually. A frittata is essentially an Italian Omelette. Instead of folding the eggs over filling of the omellete, in a fritatta, you mix the eggs with the fillings (henceforth called ingredients). You would then build the frittata much like a full fledged course… for example, you may need to cook onions, meats or other ingredients prior to adding the eggs. And cheese is typically added last, much like a topping to a pizza. Take the following recipe as an example of what makes a frittata:

• 1/2 lb. sausage
• 3 medium sized potatoes peeled and sliced
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 C. milk
• 1/4 t. salt
• 2 T. fresh chopped parsley
• 1/4 C. cheddar cheese

In a small saucepan, boil the potato slices until they become fork tender. Drain them.

Saute the sausage pieces until browned. Drain off the fat. Add the potatoes to the sausage.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, salt and parsley. Beat well.

Pour the egg mixture over the sausage. Cover and cook over low heat for 7 – 9 minutes, or until the center is set. Heat the broiler.

Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the frittata. Broil the frittata until the cheese is melted.

Let the frittata set for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.

Serves 4 – 6.