June 5, 2017 Lunch – Ichiban. Dinner – Penne with Italian Sausage and Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce
I got a call from Robert Mueller at 11:30. I asked him if he was free for lunch and he said, “Yes, and I am buying if you want to meet at Ichiban at Alameda and Coors.” I of course obliged him and drove to Ichiban, which is one of my favorite sushi restaurants in Albuquerque for two reasons, they have The best green tea of any sushi restaurant and they usually put seaweed salad on the Chirashi Donburi lunch bowl.
Today was an exception but they gave us extra tuna and yellowtail, which are my favorite fish.
We had a lively conversation from noon until 1:30, mostly law stuff.
I then drove to the bank and home and worked until 5:00.
At 6:00 I decided to make Spaghetti sauce with mushrooms, Italian sausage, and the ripe Roma tomatoes I bought at El Super last Wednesday. I first peeled and minced four heads of fresh garlic from our garden that Suzette had picked yesterday (about 2 T.). I then diced a large onion. Then fetched two additional sausages from the garage and went to the garden and picked about a dozen stalks of fresh oregano. I gave the sausages to Suzette, who skinned and chopped the sausages and then sautéed them in a skillet. She also sautéed the onion, garlic and some of the minced oregano in the large Le Creuset casserole with olive oil. I then sliced about ten shiitake and four white mushrooms. I put ½ of them in the skillet with the sausage to cook. Suzette took over and cooked the last half of the mushrooms (about 2/3 cup) in the skillet after we put the cooked sausage and mushrooms into the casserole with the onions and garlic. I then chopped enough oregano to yield about ½ cup total and put it into the casserole. I then diced the Roma tomatoes and put them into the casserole. Suzette put 4 oz. of tomato paste into the sauce and we reduced the heat under the casserole on low heat so it would simmer and integrate the ingredients. We cooked the casserole Willy arrive around 7:30. While the sauce was simmering Suzette brought a pot of water to a boil and cooked a lb. of penne pasta.
I opened a bottle of 2014 DOCC Chianti Torrato from Total Wine that cost $7.99 that did not taste as good as the Aquino Reserva sold at Trader Joe’s for $5.99 because it lacked body and character. As it opened it got smoother but did not gain any character.
Suzette added 1 tsp of salt to the sauce.
We served ourselves and I put the bottle of Chianti on the table. There were some tough pieces of sausage due to freezer burn but I was amazed by how well it integrated into the sauce. I liked the uneven chunky sausage flavor because it had absorbed some tomato flavor and was not foreign to the sauce and yet retained some unique texture of its own. In fact I consider this meal a rare treat that usually only occurs at the end of summer when tomatoes vine ripen. The Roma tomatoes I selected were all fully ripened and bursting with flavor. This gave the simple sauce a wonderful rich and yet fresh flavor.
Bon Appetit
June 5, 2017 Lunch – Ichiban. Dinner – Penne with Italian Sausage and Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce
Today was an exception but they gave us extra tuna and yellowtail, which are my favorite fish.
We had a lively conversation from noon until 1:30, mostly law stuff.
I then drove to the bank and home and worked until 5:00.
At 6:00 I decided to make Spaghetti sauce with mushrooms, Italian sausage, and the ripe Roma tomatoes I bought at El Super last Wednesday. I first peeled and minced four heads of fresh garlic from our garden that Suzette had picked yesterday (about 2 T.). I then diced a large onion. Then fetched two additional sausages from the garage and went to the garden and picked about a dozen stalks of fresh oregano. I gave the sausages to Suzette, who skinned and chopped the sausages and then sautéed them in a skillet. She also sautéed the onion, garlic and some of the minced oregano in the large Le Creuset casserole with olive oil. I then sliced about ten shiitake and four white mushrooms. I put ½ of them in the skillet with the sausage to cook. Suzette took over and cooked the last half of the mushrooms (about 2/3 cup) in the skillet after we put the cooked sausage and mushrooms into the casserole with the onions and garlic. I then chopped enough oregano to yield about ½ cup total and put it into the casserole. I then diced the Roma tomatoes and put them into the casserole. Suzette put 4 oz. of tomato paste into the sauce and we reduced the heat under the casserole on low heat so it would simmer and integrate the ingredients. We cooked the casserole Willy arrive around 7:30. While the sauce was simmering Suzette brought a pot of water to a boil and cooked a lb. of penne pasta.
I opened a bottle of 2014 DOCC Chianti Torrato from Total Wine that cost $7.99 that did not taste as good as the Aquino Reserva sold at Trader Joe’s for $5.99 because it lacked body and character. As it opened it got smoother but did not gain any character.
Suzette added 1 tsp of salt to the sauce.
We served ourselves and I put the bottle of Chianti on the table. There were some tough pieces of sausage due to freezer burn but I was amazed by how well it integrated into the sauce. I liked the uneven chunky sausage flavor because it had absorbed some tomato flavor and was not foreign to the sauce and yet retained some unique texture of its own. In fact I consider this meal a rare treat that usually only occurs at the end of summer when tomatoes vine ripen. The Roma tomatoes I selected were all fully ripened and bursting with flavor. This gave the simple sauce a wonderful rich and yet fresh flavor.
Bon Appetit
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