May 13, 2015 New Recipe – Italian Sausage, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and herbs over penne and artichoke

May 13, 2015  New Recipe – Italian Sausage, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and herbs over penne and artichoke  

This morning I thawed out two aji tuna steaks and a package of Italian sausages.

I made pho soup for lunch with the fresh Vietnamese rice vermicelli noodles and PPI steak.

This afternoon  I went to shop at Ranch Market and bought zucchini ($.79/lb.), limes ($.50/lb.), tomatoes ($.50/lb.), bananas ($.33/lb.), small avocados (5 for $.99) and green beans ($1.29/lb.).

I recalled that Cynthia had told me that she makes a simple sauce of zucchini and Italian sausage for pasta, so at 5:30 I decided to cook that type of pasta dish using the zucchini and serve it with the artichoke I had boiled yesterday.  

I needed to make a dipping sauce for the artichoke so I went to the garden and picked a few sprigs of dill for the artichoke sauce.  I also picked a small handful of basil leaves and pulled two bunches of garlic that were intruding into the tarragon patch. 

Artichoke Dipping Sauce

2/3 cup of mayonnaise

¼ cup of yogurt

Juice of ¼ lemon

2 tsp. of olive oil

½ tsp. of dill

After mixing the ingredients for the dipping sauce I put it into the fridge to chill and consolidate.

The Italian Sausage Sauté

I washed two stalks of garlic and sliced the white bottoms, then I fetched 1 ½ tomatoes, two halves of onion, the last bit of pasilla chili, ½ of a red bell pepper from the vegetable crisper and chopped them.

Suzette came home and confirmed the concept of sautéing the Italian Sausage and she de skinned and chipped up three sausages and then sautéed them in a large skillet.  I then added to the skillet about 1 Tbsp. of olive oil to keep the ingredients from scorching and then added the garlic, onion, and zucchini initially.  Suzette also went to the garden and picked a handful of fresh oregano for the sauce and chopped it and put it into the skillet.

Then I sliced the tomatoes into wedges and sliced four white mushrooms and the basil leaves and put them into the skillet.

We looked at the skillet and decided it needed more tomatoes and more liquid, so Suzette put in a 15 oz. can of organic stewed tomatoes from Costco and added about ½ cup of water, which brought the liquid level almost to the top of the ingredients in the skillet.  We allowed this mixture to cook covered over medium heat while Suzette started a pot of water boiling.  When the water in the pot was at a rolling boil we added a lb. of dried Italian penne pasta (Costco) to pot of boiling water and cooked it until tender.

After another twenty minutes the ingredients in the skillet were tender and the liquid level reduced to a sauce and the pasta was tender, so I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2012 Fabula from Monteregio di Massa Marittima DOC in Tuscany, Italy.  I had tasted the wine at one of Total Wine’s wine tastings and had liked it and bought it ($12.99), but tonight Suzette did not like the wine which I agreed had a flat taste with a slightly bitter finish.  A sure sign that it was an inferior wine was when Suzette only drank one glass and the bottle was not emptied.

Soft but not sauce

penne

The food on the other hand was interesting.  It turned into a meat and vegetable forward dish with all the ingredients intact with a light sauce made mainly from the cooking liquids of the ingredients. This was a refreshing change from the heavy tomato based spaghetti sauce I usually make.  I would cook this dish again, especially since we now have access to more fresh ingredients from the garden and have planted squashes and tomatoes, so by the end of summer we should have most of the ingredients.

We ate the artichoke while the pasta and sauté were cooking and then enjoyed dinner, except for the wine.  So it is back to more reliable chianti superior and reserve.  It is important to be aware that Total Wine pushes its exclusive labels of wine.  Sometimes they are interesting and a good value but others are just dressed up dogs.  One hint as to the winners is to look for the pictures of the employees with their recommendations.  The wine buyer employees drink the wines and the ones they prefer are their picks and they put their picture and stamp of approval on, which usually are the better wines.  

Bon Appétit