Tag: teaspoon

Cavatappi Pasta with Turkey Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Kale

by Pam on November 8, 2012

I had a craving for pasta so I decided to look through the refrigerator to see what I had on hand. I found some turkey Italian sausage, mushrooms, Parmesan and just a bit of kale. I also grabbed some grape tomatoes and garlic off the counter and some pasta out of the pantry. This meal took less than 20 minutes to make and was hearty, tasty, and healthy – you can’t beat that! The whole family enjoyed it and we gobbled it right up.

Cook the pasta in salted water per instructions. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of liquid.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the sausage from it’s casings and place into the skillet and cook, breaking it up into smaller pieces. Cook until it browns, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes, or until the mushrooms are golden brown. Add the minced garlic, tomatoes, and kale, and cook for about 3 more minutes. Add the broth to the skillet and season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Add the cooked/drained pasta to the skillet, and toss to coat evenly. Add some of the reserved pasta water if needed. Place into serving bowls and top with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

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Cavatappi Pasta with Turkey Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Kale

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 5 min.

Cook Time: 15 min.

Total Time: 20 min.

Ingredients:

8 oz of cavatappi pasta, cooked per instructions
5 links of turkey Italian sausage, casings removed
8 oz of button mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup of grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup of kale, chopped
1/2 cup of chicken broth
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

Cook the pasta in salted water per instructions. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of liquid.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the sausage from it’s casings and place into the skillet and cook, breaking it up into smaller pieces. Cook until it browns, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes, or until the mushrooms are golden brown. Add the minced garlic, tomatoes, and kale, and cook for about 3 more minutes. Add the broth to the skillet and season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Add the cooked/drained pasta to the skillet, and toss to coat evenly. Add some of the reserved pasta water if needed. Place into serving bowls and top with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

Recipe and photos by For the Love of Cooking.net

References

^{^} Print Recipe (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)

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Bread & Butter Pickles – One of the Great Depression’s Greatest Hits

During the Great Depression, sandwiches weren’t quite what they are today. Forget about choice of aioli, or did you want roast tri tip or smoked turkey; back then it was more like, “Did you want cucumbers in your sandwich, or nothing in your sandwich?” Okay, cucumbers it is.

At the end of summer, the excess “cuc” crop was sliced, salted, pickled, and put up in jars for the cold, lean months ahead. If you thought summer Depression-era sandwiches sucked, it was much worse in winter, when you couldn’t even find a bland vegetable to slap between your slices of buttered bread.

I can just imagine what a treat it must have been to fill a sandwich with these sweet crunchy coins, or “bread and butter pickles,” as they came to be known. I’m sure it was a wonderful break from what must have been a fairly flavorless existence. Happily, times are a bit better now, and we only make these because they taste really good.

So, make a batch, experience a little piece of American culinary history, and as you’re tossing them on that burger, think back to what those days must have been like. I mean, especially with no YouTube! I hope you give these bread & butter pickles a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 2 pints:
2 lbs pickling or other firm, little cucumbers

1/2 yellow onion, sliced

2 red jalapeno pepper, sliced

3 tbsp kosher salt

2 cups sugar

2 cups white distilled vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp mustard seeds

1 teaspoon celery seeds

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 tsp black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, sliced

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Cronuts! The Doughnuts That Make People Go Nuts! Part 1: The Dough

I’m assuming that since you’re on a food blog you’ve
probably heard about “cronuts,” but just in case,
here’s a quick review.

This croissant/doughnut hybrid was invented by Dominique
Ansel at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. It became an overnight
sensation, and now people stand in line for hours just for a chance at getting
one of the precious few that are made each day.

Why all the hype? Very simple – it has the shape and flavor of a doughnut, yet features the crispy, flaky texture of a buttery croissant. What’s not to hype? Anyway, after seeing like two dozen new reports on the
craze, and receiving a scary number of food wishes for it, I decided to give it
a go, if for no other reason than to save a few of my NYC friends the humiliation of being Instagrammed standing in that line.

Since I’ve never tasted a cronut, what follows is purely an
educated guess, but I think I got pretty close. Maybe one of you New Yorkers
will mail me one, so I know for sure? My game plan was simple. Make a slightly
sweet, yeasty, doughnut-esque dough, which I’d then layer with butter, using
the classic croissant technique.

It’s a procedure I do all the time, as in once, back in
culinary school, thirty years ago. So, instead of going by the book, or even
looking in a book, I winged it, and not only that, I streamlined things too.
Instead painstakingly pounding out perfectly sized slabs of cold butter, I
decided to try simply spreading softened butter instead. I also threw caution
to the wind, and pulled off the rare and terrifying “double fold and turn,” and
lived to tell the tale.

Like I said in the video, we’ll cover the final results in
Part 2, but spoiler alert…these were awesome. I did two different versions, one
regular, and one with an extra “fold and turn” which resulted in a taller, and
even more impressive cronut. Stay tuned!

Ingredients for 16 Cronuts:

1 package dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1/2 cup warm water (105 degrees F.)

1 teaspoon fine salt

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pound all-purpose flour, more as needed

6 ounces soft, unsalted, “European-style” butter (12 tablespoons)

Fist steps:

– Combine yeast and warm water, and let sit five minutes.

– Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the flour and the European-style butter, and
whisk to combine.

– Add the flour, and knead for about three minutes or until
a soft sticky dough ball forms.

– Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

– Roll dough out into roughly a 18 x 9-inch rectangle.

– Proceed with butter as shown!