Avanzi di Pane
Avanzi di pane means leftover bread in Italian. At least, it does by Bing translate standards. Google translate called leftover bread pane avanzato which translates to advanced bread. Technically, I guess that's reasonable, however, when I put avanzi di pane in Google, it came out as leftover bread.
The suffering I do for my art...
This all started because we had leftover bread. What a surprise, eh?!? The upside to baking is having all of this fabulous bread. The downside is having all of this fabulous bread. We do make our own breadcrumbs, but... there's a limit there, too.
As luck would have it, I remembered a blog I had seen several years ago called Rustico Cooking. The blog belongs to a cooking school in NYC, and, while it hasn't been updated in a couple of years, it does have some fun ideas - like sausage and escarole over cheesy bread cubes.
I started reading the recipe to Victor this morning and the first thing he said was it needs white beans. I thought it needed pancetta, as well. And some white wine... Part of the fun of cooking is looking at an idea and seeing how it can be changed... bouncing ideas back and forth... I don't want to say improved because I'm not improving it - I'm changing it. Semantics, I know, but... I do think it's different.
Here's my take on it...
Avanzi di Pane con Scarola, Salsiccia e Formaggio
adapted from Rustico Cooking
for the sausage and escarole:
- 8 oz hot Italian Sausage
- 2 oz pancetta, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large head escarole, chopped
- 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup white wine, divided
- pinch red chili flakes
- S&P to taste
Remove sausage from casings and place in bowl. Add about 1/4 cup white wine and break up. Set aside.
In a large skillet with lid, saute pancetta until slightly crispy. Add sausage, chili pepper, and garlic and cook until sausage is cooked through.
Add remaining wine and cook for a minute to very slightly reduce. Stir in beans.
Add escarole and mix in well. Cover, reduce heat, and cook a few minutes until escarole begins to wilt.
Meanwhile, make the bread...
- 4 cups leftover bread cubes
- olive oil
- garlic powder
- 4 oz fontina or other Italian cheese
- 4 oz fresh mozzarella
- S&P, to taste
Drizzle bread with oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place on rimmed baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes at 375°F. Remove from oven and sprinkle cheeses over bread. Return to oven and bake until cheese melts - about 5 more minutes.
to assemble:
Divide cheesy bread among plates and top with sausage escarole.
Talk about something that could use a runny fried egg on! But even without the egg, this was good! Really simple, lots of flavor, and ready in about 15 minutes. It's the ultimate fast food.
One thing to keep in mind is you do want some liquid in with the escarole and sausage - but you don't want a lot. Keep your eye on it and if you have too much - keep it in the pan when you're dishing it out.
The cheesy sourdough toast was the perfect foil for the slightly spicy, slightly bitter, and slightly creamy topping.
We shall make this one, again!
Santas and Spicy Jambalaya
We started taking down Christmas, today. It was 2°F outside - absolutely no reason to step outside and do anything.
I have to admit that I just don't get the concept of always having to be out and about. I just can't think of anything worse than always being in the car, running into this store and that, standing in line for coffee, for mediocre service, hurrying here and there...
I think I'm getting old.
Because I think that once upon a time that was me. Now?!? I leave the house to go to work and go grocery shopping. I brew my own coffee and if I can't buy something online, I don't buy it. Life has gotten a lot less complex. And I love it.
Our big decision, today, was whether to take down the tree or leave it up for one more night and take it down tomorrow. We packed away everything else. The tree stayed.
We have a pretty good system. The linens all get collected to be washed, and then we start loading the table with Santas. Lots and lots of Santas.
The bins come back up from the basement and I start wrapping and packing while Victor disassembles the smaller trees, wreaths, and garlands, and brings things into the kitchen. It's a great system.
We stop for sustenance - today was coffee and Kolaches - and then carry on until we're done.
And then there's dinner.
Tonight, it was a jambalaya of sorts. Of sorts, because I didn't use any shrimp.
I did use chunks of chicken and andouille sausage - and thyme and hot pepper sauce - so it had a great kick. It just wasn't New Orleans authentic.
Jambalaya
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 oz andouille sausage, sliced
- 2 cups chicken, cubed
- 1 can diced tomatoes with juice
- 1 cup rice
- 3 cups broth
- 1 tsp thyme
- Tabasco sauce (I used our homemade hot sauce)
- Salt & pepper
Saute onion and pepper. Add garlic and saute. Add chicken and cook. Add andouille and brown.
Add rice, tomatoes, broth, thyme, a few healthy shots of Tabasco, and a pinch of S&P. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer about 15 minutes.
Stir everything well. Cover, again, and cook another 10 to 15 minutes or until rice is cooked.
Add a few more healthy shots of Tabasco and enjoy.
It's pretty no-brainer easy and it doesn't take a lot of watching. And on a freezing day, it warms the old body right up. I was going to make cornbread to go along with it, but completely forgot. We ended up watching a PBS/Broadway special of Holiday Inn after taking the last of the bins downstairs and it completely slipped my mind until we were sitting down to eat.
Oh well... we really didn't need it!
Polenta, Peppers, and Sausage
Sometimes the simplest dishes are the best.
Two things Nonna dislikes - and we really like - are polenta and spicy sausages. While she used to like spicy foods, polenta has eluded her since her childhood. She spent a few years in the Sons of Italy Orphanage and says she ate too much of it way back when.
Me, I love the stuff and the cheesier and creamier, the better.
So, while she had a hamburger steak cooked with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and red wine, we had polenta topped with peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and fresh andouille sausage.
Polenta on the bottom, everything on top. Into the oven to get hot.
Quick and easy.
Pasta Night
Just about any night around here can be pasta night, but I went to bed last night thinking of pasta, olives, and fresh tomatoes. I had been out earlier in the day picking more tomatoes and peppers and was thinking a fresh sauce was in order. We have plenty of jarred sauce downstairs - and plenty of fresh tomatoes that need using up.
I made a few pints of pepper relish yesterday and there's a bush-load of tabasco peppers out there that I hope will make a few bottles of hot sauce this weekend.
The garden is slowing down, but it ain't finished.
As I headed off to Wegman's for my weekly grocery trek, olives stayed front and center in my mind. I hit their Mediterranean Bar and picked up a pint of assorted pitted olives. They went into the skillet with chopped fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, a bit of oregano, and lots of pepato cheese - a sheep's milk cheese with peppercorns from Sicily.
I thought about chopping the olives but decided I wanted to taste different olives instead of having everything blended together. Either way would work - this is what I chose this time.
My original vision had wide noodles soaking up the sauce - I really do have a vivid imagination when it comes to this stuff - but when heading into the cupboard, I found a bag of Arcobaleno - rainbow - pasta shaped like a rather large orecchiette.
Vision was tweaked a bit.
Sausage was cooked off with some onion and garlic - and a goodly splash of red wine. And then fresh tomatoes were added. No peeling or seeding...
I cooked it down and then added the olives and cipollini onions.
Heated it all through, added the pasta that was slightly undercooked, and finished it off in the sauce.
It came out exactly as I hoped it would, albeit with a bit more heat than Nonna likes. She ate a goodly amount but wanted a piece of cheese cake to cool her mouth off.
We, on the other hand, went for it with both barrels. And... there's enough left for lunch tomorrow.
Life is good.
Stuffed Peppers
It's the garden that keeps on giving - and it really hasn't even started, yet!
While I was busy making desserts and looking at apartments in Barcelona, Victor was in the kitchen making magic with fresh peppers and tomatoes from the garden! It's a wonderful life we lead!
He started with a basic sauce of fresh tomatoes - whooshed in the blender and then cooked with smashed anchovies, garlic, a bit of tomato paste fried with the anchovies and garlic, red wine, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and a handful of pecorino.
The stuffing was ligurian sausage, onion, yellow zucchini, onion, whole grain bread for croutons, garlic, a splash of the tomato sauce, and more pecorino.
Covered, and then into a 375ºF oven for 40 minutes.
Nonna all but licked her plate clean. Mine was so clean from sopping up every morsel with bread that we could have almost put the plate back in the cupboard.
It was molto favoloso!
Dessert to follow.....
Tomatoes, Figs, and Sausage
I had a bit of an unexpected day off from work, today - I had to get nasty cancerous things cut off my delicate skin - so... into the kitchen to properly heal!
It only makes sense, right?!? I mean... food is medicine, food is healing. Throw in some butter and a bit of alcohol and it's downright holistic!
Tonight's helping of healing holistic happiness comes to us because fresh figs have hit the east coast! I just love me some figs and with a really short season back here, I have to get them when I can.
But before I could start making a mess in the kitchen, Victor was making the first tomato salad with tomatoes from the garden.
Red, ripe, juicy tomatoes with Sicilian Olive Oil, basil from the garden, a bit of fresh garlic, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Pure flavors and pure simplicity. If the garden gods cooperate, this will be a regular dinner feature.
And on to dinner...
My first thoughts when approaching fresh fruits is almost always dessert. Let's face it - if I had my way dessert would be renamed breakfast and treated as such. But, every now and again I have to think outside the sugar bag and come up with something savory.
Tonight is a great example...
I did a sausage and grapes a while back so the concept wasn't unfamiliar... I just needed some inspiration.
Chef Google came to the rescue.
I found a recipe on a site called Idiot's Kitchen that sounded promising... Figs, marsala, mushrooms - all things already in the house. Since I'm infirm, I didn't want to have to go to the store.
While Idiot's Kitchen used a pork tenderloin, I used apple sausage from Martin's Meats at Reading Terminal Market. I have a planned trek back down there towards the end of the month for more goodies, so I have to use up the stuff in the freezer! Apple sausage... fresh figs... sounds like a marriage made in gastronomic heaven.
Figs and Sausage
adapted from Idiot's Kitchen
- fresh sausage
- 4 oz pancetta, large dice
- 1 med onion, chopped
- 8 mixed mushrooms, sliced
- 1 lb fresh figs
- 6 oz Dry Marsala (sweet will work if that's what you have)
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
- S&P, to taste
In a large skillet, brown sausages in a bit of olive oil. They don't need to be cooked through - they'll be going back to finish in the sauce.
Remove the sausages and add the pancetta. Preferably, you will have a couple of thick cuts of pancetta that you can cut into 1/2" cubes. If all you can get is the pre-diced 1/4" package, just be really careful not to overcook it. Lightly saute the pancetta, rendering the fat but not crisping it.
Add the onions and cook for a minute or two and then add the mushrooms. Cook until the onions are cooked through and the mushrooms have given up much of their moisture.
Add the marsala and bring to a boil. Add the figs and reduce the heat to medium and simmer until sauce is reduced by half. Add the sausages back in and add 1/3 cup chicken broth.
Simmer until sausages are cooked through.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
We ate this up with slices of crusty bread - perfect for dunking in the tomato juice and the fig juice. It made a lot - way more than the three of us could eat - so Victor has lunch leftovers while I'm at work.
Yes... I have to head back to work tomorrow. I took off Saturday for my niece's graduation party.
I'm thinkin' that if there are more figs to be had on Sunday, I might make a fig jam... Figs, marsala, and pistachios might go well together...
Hmmmmm.....
Chicken and Chorizo
We don't often eat spicy foods, anymore. Nonna doesn't care for the heat and I'm usually not in the mood to cook two dinners. But every now and again the spice-urge gets to me and it's damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.
Like tonight.
We had some fresh Mexican chorizo in the freezer I had picked up down at Reading Terminal Market that had been calling to me for a couple of weeks. I had thought of a dozen and one ideas to use it, but they all meant cooking something else for Nonna. Tonight, I hit upon an idea that let me cook everything in one pan and parse out the spice when dishing things up.
And it worked!
The basic recipe came from Bon Appetit about 5 years ago - fairly current in my stack of recipes I haven't yet made. I think if I started cooking right now, I wouldn't get through the recipes I've clipped or collected before my 90th birthday. So many ideas, so little time.
I took the basic idea and played with it - and Nonna cleaned her plate, completely. Afterwards, she said, "the sweet potatoes were a bit hot, weren't they?" But she ate every bite. Go figure.
You could make this with cured Spanish chorizo, if you wanted - it would just be a bit different, texturally.
Chicken and Chorizo with Sweet Potatoes
- 3 chicken breasts
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 3 links fresh Mexican chorizo, casings removed, crumbled
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2" thick
- 1 red onion, large chop
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp rosemary
- S&P, as desired
- Quesso Fresco
- Green Onions
Marinate the chicken in the apple cider vinegar and set aside.
Preheat oven to 425°F.
In an oven-proof skillet, slightly brown the crumbled chorizo. Push chorizo to the side of the pan and add the chicken breasts. Lightly cook on one side maybe 3 minutes - just enough to brown a bit.
Meanwhile, peel and slice the sweet potatoes, mixing them with the garlic, white wine, rosemary, onions, and a bit of S&P.
Remove the chicken breasts from the pan and add the potato and onion mixture - wine and all - to the skillet. Mix things up and nestle the potatoes down into the pan. Place the chicken breasts on top and place, uncovered, into the oven.
Bake about 25 minutes or until potatoes and chicken are cooked through.
Place chorizo and potato mixture on plate and top with the sliced chicken breast. Finish it off with crumbled quesso fresco and chopped green onions.
The quesso fresco balances the heat of the chorizo really well and the green onions add a bit of freshness.
It really hit the spot with a lot of oohs and ahhs throughout the meal. I see more spiciness being snuck into dinner...
Cheese, Sausage, and Reading Terminal Market
I told myself I was going to go to Reading Terminal Market once a month - and actually was doing it. And then I wasn't. Today I did.
Got that?!?
Victor had the day off and we were able to get our Nonna-Sitter to stay for a few hours [I had to buy her two cannoli from Termini Bros.] so off to the train station we went. Victor got off at 30th Street Station to take pictures with his new camera and I continued on to the market. Picture-taking and food-shopping are pretty much solitary endeavors in our house. Both have their singular plan and vision. It works.
The market was bustling and first thing I did was head over to Old City Coffee for a cuppa and a couple pounds of Viennese Roast Sumatra and a pound of the San Francisco Blend. I really enjoy a good Viennese Roast coffee - it's not quite taken to the French Roast stage - and Old City does a great job with their Sumatra. They do a great job with all their coffees...
Fortified, I headed over to Downtown Cheese to see Rachel and get some really good cheese. I love being able to pick her brain on what's good and what's worth getting. Since we've known each other for years, she is always right on the money with her suggestions. Today was a Raclette - that I used for tonight's dinner - and two Italian cheeses - Moliterno al Tartufo and Piave. The Moliterno has black truffles running through it - it's going to become a risotto on Sunday - and the Piave will be a grating cheese, most likely. It's similar to a parmesan from northern Italy.
Yum.
My other big stop was Martin's Sausage. They are my number one purveyor of sausages. They have so many varieties - and they're all excellent. And the price is right, too. I picked up 21 sausages - 3-each of 7 varieties - for $32.00. It's a steal. I bought: Fresh Peppers and Onions, White Wine, Garlic, Parsley, and Lemon, Fresh Mozzarella Cheese and Fresh Basil, Fresh Apple, Fresh Garlic, Fresh Chorizo, and Luganega made with Romano Cheese and Fresh Parsley. We're going to have some fun meals!
A total spur-of-the-moment-impulse-buy was a couple of porterhouse steaks at Giuntas Prime Shop. I was actually buying a reasonably-priced hangar steak when I said "and two of those." What the hell.
A loaf of bread at Metropolitan Bakery, some Easter-y cake decorating sprinkles at The Head Nut and I was done. Years ago I would have grabbed so much more, but I really have gotten selective over the years.
I headed over to Termini Bros. for Donna's cannoli and noticed Victor had called. In a couple of minutes we were sitting down at DiNics for sandwiches. We really should have ordered one to split. Really. It was way too much food. But damn! They are good! They are definitely one of the best sandwiches in the city.
And the cooks were fun, as well. They spied Victor taking pictures and had to say hello!
Fortified, we headed home where Nonna greeted me with "what are you making delicious for dinner?"
The sausage was definitely going to be center stage on this one, and since we had plenty of potatoes, onions, and peppers already in the house, a simple skillet dinner was born.
Roasted potatoes with onions, peppers, sausage, and raclette cheese melted over everything.
First were the potatoes...
Just cubed and doused with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some herbes d' Provence.
And then the onions and peppers - along with some roasted garlic I had in the 'fridge. Standard fare.
Next was the sausage. I used the fresh garlic for this one...
It is just sooooo good.
Then the raclette... It's such a great melting cheese It brings back a lot of memories from my years in the mountains at Tahoe.
And it all came together under the broiler.
Really really simple food, but really good quality. It took me 30 minutes start-to-finish, and there's plenty left over for lunch, tomorrow. This is how I really love to eat - a few great flavors and textures blended together. No muss and no fuss. Crusty bread on the side.
I'm already planning my next trip - and I haven't even made the risotto, yet!
Escarole and Sausage over Crispy-Cheesy Bread
I was perusing a few of the websites I have linked to this, this morning, and came upon a recipe I immediately knew we were having for dinner, tonight on Rustico Cooking.
I actually don't remember how I came upon their website but I immediately bookmarked it because the food looked so intriguing. The recipes seemed simple but with complex flavors. And today, I decided to jump in!
I have a huge bookmark section on the computer devoted to food - what a surprise, eh?!? - and as I was saying earlier, if I just cooked the recipes I already have I'd never have to buy another cook book in my life. This has made me revisit not only my blog links, but the bookmarks, as well. I have been in a huge rut as far as cooking goes. It's time to break out and get creative, again.
This was a great start. Naturally, I switched things around a bit, used different cheeses, but the recipe is basic and pretty much calls for your own interpretation. The bread is important. Use something fairly light that will toast well and give a nice crunch without being too heavy or overwhelming.
And something Victor and I both noted is this would be outstanding with a fried egg on top.
Next time...
Escarole and Sausage over Crispy-Cheesy Bread
adapted from Rustico Cooking
Sausage and Escarole:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- 1/2 lb hot Italian sausage, casings removed and crumbled
- 1 lb - a large head - escarole, chopped
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Place the olive oil, fennel seeds, garlic, and chili flakes in a wide pan with a tight-fitting lid. Warm gently over medium heat until it becomes aromatic - a minute or so.
Add the sausage and cook stirring often and breaking it up, until the sausage is nicely browned. Add the chopped escarole, season with the salt and pepper, and cover.
Cook about 10 minutes, stirring once in a while, or until the escarole cooks down. The liquid is essential to this dish, so keep the lid on. Set aside while making bread.
Crispy-Cheesy Bread:
- 4 cups cubed Italian focaccia or other light-textured bread
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 lb low moisture Mozzarella, shredded
- 2 oz Ricotta Salada, shredded
- 2 oz Pecorino Romano, shredded
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Spread bread cubes onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and add a pinch of salt & pepper, if desired. Place in 400° oven for 5 minutes. Remove.
Move bread cubes to center of pan, keeping them fairly close together and in one layer.
Sprinkle cheeses on top. Return to oven and bake about 5 more minutes - until cheese is melted and bread is slightly more toasted.
To Assemble:
Reheat sausage and escarole.
Place about 1/4 of the cheesy bread on each of 2 plates. Top with 1/4 of the sausage and escarole. Add a second layer of each.
Drizzle any remaining juices from the escarole on top of the plates and enjoy!
As we were oohing and awing and deciding what else would be fun - like that fried egg - Victor's mom just looked at us as if we were crazy. She had ziti and mild Italian sausage. Her adventurous eating days are behind her.
Ours are just starting up, again, after a bit of a hiatus.
White Beans and Roasted Tomatoes
It's 70-something degrees outside on the last day of Summer.
Time to make some beans.
I was up in the cupboards last night rearranging and getting them a bit organized. I need to take inventory now and again to make sure those things that get pushed into the corners actually see the light of day and get used. I keep rice and beans in jars for the most part, but had a 1-pound bag of white beans that were just sitting there without a jar or a place to call home.
Into a bowl they went with lots of water to soak overnight.
I grew up in the Thou Shalt Not Salt Beans world. Seems things have changed. Now, not only can you salt the cooking water, the big thing is brining beans - adding salt to the soaking liquid.
I'll pass. And salt my beans when they're tender. I get enough salt in my diet without soaking my beans in even more of the stuff. Besides, I still have that magnesium-calcium-sodium-cell-wall-molecular-structure-stuff playing in the YouTube of my mind. Old dog, new tricks. As I said... I'll pass.
***ten years later, I have changed my mind. I brine. Old dog learned new trick.
So... here I was with a pound of soaked white beans and only a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I had seen a recipe at La Cucina Italiana for beans with oven-roasted tomatoes. And I had seen another, recently, with beans and sausage. We had all of the above - fresh tomatoes right out of the garden, sausage in the freezer...
Time to improvise.
White Beans with Sausage and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
- 1 lb white beans, soaked overnight
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 ribs celery, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb Italian sausage, cut into chunks
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups - more or less - water
- 1 tsp French herbs
- salt and pepper, to taste
Sauté onion, celery, carrots, and garlic in a bit of olive oil. Add sausage and lightly brown.
Add drained beans and 2 cups of chicken broth. Add additional water to cover the beans by about an inch.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beans are tender - 45 minutes or so.
Stir in seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
While beans are cooking, roast tomatoes.
- plum tomatoes
- beefsteak tomatoes
- salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350°.
Slice plum tomatoes in half lengthwise. Cut beefsteak tomatoes in large chunks. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and place tomatoes cut-side up on paper. Sprinkle with S&P.
Roast in oven about 30 minutes.
To assemble:
Place beans and sausage in bowl. Top with chunks of roasted tomatoes. Add shaved parmesan, if desired.
It was a bit of a different take on an old standard and even Nonna finished her bowl! I can see something like this happening again, although I should probably roast the tomatoes now and freeze them rather than try and use the garbage tomatoes of winter. I rarely buy tomatoes after summer...
It can easily be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken broth and switching out the sausage for a meatless substitute.
Now all I need is for the weather to turn fall-like...
Stuffed Peppers
I wanted to make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce and I had a hankerin' for stuffed peppers. I decided to do both.
Spaghetti sauce may be the easiest thing in the world to make. I'm surprised at how many people never make it and at how popular jarred sauce is. I mean... the jarred sauce tastes... jarred. Yet, when you look at the shelf-upon-shelf of sauces at the grocery store, I am clearly in the minority.
Folks speak of the convenience of jarred sauce. I make big batches of sauce and freeze it in convenient containers. And I don't have to think about the sugar, sodium, dehydrated onions, and lord knows what else they have put in the stuff. I like being able to pronounce the things I eat.
For this batch of sauce, I had ground beef and Italian sausage, so I used some of each and saved a bit of each for the pepper filling.
The sauce was onions, garlic, bell pepper, mushrooms, olive oil, red wine, ground beef, Italian sausage, Greek oregano, basil, rosemary, tomato paste, ground tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, and pepper.
This was a wintertime simmer sauce. As soon as fresh tomatoes are on the vine, and fresh herbs in the garden, a sauce can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta.
The peppers were a bit less traditional. I cooked up some whole-grain rice and then added minced onion, minced garlic, minced celery, and minced carrot, and mixed it with the beef and sausage. S&P and some Italian seasoning finished them off. I didn't use any binders, bread crumbs, egg... none of that stuff. I put a bit of sauce in the bottom of the dish and into the 350° oven they went - covered - for about 40 minutes. Off came the cover and on went some grated cheese.
Victor had leftover peppers for lunch and six containers of sauce went into the freezer.
Take that, Ragu!
Sausage Rolls
Phyllo... nothing more than phyllo... he sang in his best Morris Albert voice...
Well... I did have phyllo in the freezer taking up space, so I thought it was time to put it to use. My original plan was to just wrap it around hot Italian sausage links and bake - a bit like a big pig-in-a-blanket - but once I walked into the kitchen, the idea changed completely.
I had red peppers, I had mushrooms, I had cheese... I kinda figured a chopped filling would work better - and be easier to eat. Since I didn't do the other, I'll never know if I was right - but this came out so good I won't worry about it...
I finely-diced a red pepper and sauteed it in a drizzle of olive oil. Next went in about 4 ounces of white mushrooms, also finely-chopped. When it was all fairly well-cooked, I added 4 links of hot Italian sausage I had removed from their casings and crumbled. A pinch of salt and pepper were the only seasonings.
Into the 'fridge to cool.
When it was cool, I laid out two sheets of phyllo - it was a bit old and crumbly from sitting in the freezer and 2 sheets was easier to work with than one at a time - and buttered it, placed about a fourth of the filling at one end, and added sliced fontina cheese.
I then folded the sides in, buttered them, and rolled them up, burrito-style. More butter on top, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and into a 400° oven about 20 minutes.
These were fun. They tasted great, had lots of great textures, were crispy and gooey at the same time.
I'm thinking this may be a fun way to re-purpose leftovers...
So many possibilities, so few meals...