Oriecchette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

I've been hesitant about posting this recipe, because honestly... I really didn't like it that much. It's rare for me to make something that completely falls short of my expectations since I know my own taste pretty well at this point, but this was sort of a bummer.

But, there's really nothing wrong with it... I think (and please, hold the "that's what she said" comments for this next statement!) that it was really just too much of a strong sausage-y dish for my taste. Hehe. Ok! Moving on...

My main motivation for trying this dish was that I have never cooked with broccoli rabe, and it seemed like a no-brainer. I love broccoli, greens, and pretty much anything remotely related to Italian cooking, so this hit the trifecta.

(that is a whole lot of broccoli rabe)

Oh- the recipe. I used Giada's recipe, but since I can't fathom using a turkey product when there could be pork involved, I used regular spicy Italian sausage.

(That's what she... no.)

First up, I washed and chopped a huge mess of the broccoli rabe, then gave it a quick bath in boiling salted water. So far, so good.

(veggie spa treatment)

Next up came the sausage, and then this recipe hit its first snag for me. Everywhere I looked, recipes for this dish asked for the sausage to be cooked with the casings "removed", and I quickly realized that this was no easy task. It's hard for me to get too grossed out cooking, but let's just say that dissecting sausage innards is not high on my favorite activities list now.

(sausage guts... yum)

I tried using this link as a reference guide, but... I wouldn't recommend it. This is not a process for the faint of heart!

Finally (or so it felt), the sausage dissection was complete and the recipe went easy enough from there. I sauteed the sausage innards (sorry, I can't stop dropping gross descriptions!) with garlic and red pepper flakes, and at the same time cooked the pasta in the broccoli rabe water. This was my first time cooking with oreiecchette- or "orecchiette", per the box, who knows- and it is a delicious, hearty pasta.

Once the sausage and pasta were done, you just get everything into the sausage skillet and mix it together with a bit of pasta water and Parmesan cheese.


So... it's a good dish, just not one that will make my "repeat over and over again" list. I think the sausage is a very strong flavor, and the equally strong, slightly bitter taste of the broccoli rabe seemed to fight with it instead of meld harmoniously like I'd envisioned. I think I'll experiment further with broccoli rabe, since that was my favorite part of the dish- any ideas would be very welcome!


Ingredients

• 2 bunches broccoli rabe, stems trimmed
• 1 pound orecchiette pasta
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound spicy Italian-style sausage, casings removed
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Pinch dried crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  

Directions

Cook the broccoli rabe in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp tender, about 1 minute. Transfer the broccoli rabe to a large bowl of ice water to cool, saving the cooking water. Bring the reserved cooking water back to a boil.

Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up into pieces with a spoon, until browned and juices form, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, when the reserved cooking water is boiling, add the orecchiette and cook until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

Drain the broccoli rabe and add it to the pan with the sausage mixture and toss to coat with the juices. Add the pasta to the skillet. Stir in the Parmesan and about 1/4 cup of the pasta water, and serve immediately.

Mushroom Salad

I find that people fall into two camps on the subject of mushrooms- LOVE!, or, EW FUNGUS GET IT AWAY DON'T LET ANY OF MY FOOD TOUCH IT EWWWW!!! Since the title of this post is (imaginatively) "Mushroom Salad", I'm pretty sure you know where I stand. So... those of you in camp 2 might want to avert your eyes.

(Ahhhh!!! Fungus!!)

So, the mushroom salad. I have to admit, I kind of love The Melting Pot restaurant- yes, it's a little hokey and to quote my ex-boyfriend, "You have to cook your OWN FOOD!", but I happen to love cheese a lot, almost as much as I love dipping assorted items into cheese. Anyway- the Melting Pot does have (a few) non-fondue items on the menu, and one that I've been ordering for probably more than a decade now on my occasional visits is the mushroom salad: basically a huge plate of raw, thinly sliced white mushrooms covered with a lemony-Parmesan dressing. That's it, and yet I never thought about making it for myself.

And then this past Saturday morning, fate and the Food Network intervened. I was enjoying not having much to do, with my usual Giada/Ina lineup in the background on the tv. Then one of Giada's recipes caught my attention- mushroom salad, simply dressed with a lemon dressing and Parmesan... that sounded familiar! I added mushrooms and lemons to my list and was off to Whole Foods.

So... thankfully I decided to buy two containers of mushrooms, because I "tested" this salad for my lunch and managed to polish off an entire one by myself. It's really that good (if you're the mushroom type, of course), and take approximately thirty seconds to prepare- put sliced mushrooms in a bowl; whisk lemon juice with olive oil; top with the dressing, parsley, grated Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. The mushrooms soak in the tangy dressing, and their flavor combines beautifully with the parsley and cheese. It's absurdly simple, but all of the components work together to produce something with a much more complicated taste.

Seriously- if you're in the "love mushrooms" camp like me, you will be SO happy to have this up your sleeve.

Ingredients

• 12 oz. large button mushrooms, trimmed, cleaned and thinly sliced
• Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, 2 Tablespoons
  
• Extra-virgin olive oil, 2 Tablespoons
  
• Fresh lemon juice, 2 Tablespoons
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  

Method

In a medium salad bowl, mix together the mushrooms and parsley. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil and lemon juice until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Add the oil mixture to the salad bowl and toss until all the ingredients are coated. Add the Parmesan cheese and serve.

Asparagus Lasagna

Last Friday kicked off quite the weekend of cooking- I got to try out some new recipes and spend time with some of my wonderful friends and family! But after cooking three out of the past four days straight, I'm definitely ready for a breather- hence tonight's leftover spaghetti squash and tomato soup dinner. Leftovers, gotta love 'em.

But back to Friday, and the afore-mentioned new recipes. My friends Dana and Dave came over Friday to catch up, eat, and- exciting news- discuss my kitchen renovation plans!! I love my little condo, but the kitchen cabinets and counters are sadly stuck in the 80's. Hopefully with Dave's help, that will soon be an unpleasant memory and I'll have a great new kitchen.

Since I was working until 5:30 on Friday and my friends were arriving around 7:30, I had to plan my attack carefully. Thursday night, I paged through some of my go-to cookbooks and found Giada's recipe for asparagus lasagna, which sounded perfect- a classic with a twist that I could prepare right after work, then relax with my friends. I hate having friends over and then being chained to the kitchen sauteeing or assembling, so recipes which can be made ahead of time and just stuck in the oven are ideal.

(photo courtesy FoodNetwork.com...
but I promise, mine looked almost as pretty!)

This was fairly easy to assemble, and I love the idea of using a sun-dried tomato pesto instead of a typical marinara. Before making the Whole Foods run, I read some of the reader reviews for this recipe on FoodNetwork.com, which indicated that dryness could be an issue with the noodles. I decided to substitute a can of diced tomatoes for one of the two recommended sun-dried tomato jars and was really happy with the result.

The only issue I had with this recipe is that although it calls for pancetta (yay! Italian bacon!), there's no indication what to do with the pancetta once you've sauteed and drained it. Oops! As a result, my lasagna was completely assembled before I realized the omission, so I just sprinkled it on top. It ended up being fine and probably helped get the pancetta pieces a little more crispy, but I may try adding it into the filling next time. I suppose we'll never know what Giada intended!

(Poor homeless pancetta!)

(Dear Giada, where does the
pancetta go?! Love, Dana)

So aside from these small issues, the preparation for this lasagna went smoothly. The ricotta cheese filling is mixed with sauteed chopped onions and asparagus, then layered with the sun-dried tomato pesto (sorry, no pics of that... operating both a food processor and a camera strains my meager technical abilities!), noodles, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese.

(asparagus filling prep)

(asparagus and onions sauteeing)

(Ooh... lasagna cross-section)

The final step is to dot the top with butter in preparation for baking, and from there I just wrapped the lasagna and let it hang out until we were ready for dinner. Happily, this was a first-time recipe that worked out beautifully- everyone loved it and impressively, the four of us were able to polish off the entire dish (and a few bottles of wine never hurt!). Maybe I'll make it next to break in my soon-to-be NEW kitchen!

(Pre-baking, assembled lasagna)

Ingredients

• 9 lasagna sheets, fresh or dried
  
• 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon, divided
• 2 (8.5 oz.) jars sun-dried tomatoes, drained (*or substitute one 12 oz. can of diced tomatoes, and their liquid)
  
• 1 1/2 packed cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus 3/4 cup
• 1/4 pound pancetta, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 (15 oz.) container whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes for dried pasta or 2 to 3 minutes for fresh pasta. Drain pasta.

In a food processor combine the sun-dried tomatoes and basil (and diced tomatoes if using). Pulse until the mixture is combined. Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan. Set aside.

In a large skillet brown the pancetta until crisp. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, onion, and garlic and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add asparagus and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the ricotta, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a 9 by 13-inch baking dish sprinkle some of the sun-dried tomato mixture on the bottom of the casserole dish. Place some lasagna sheets, then half asparagus mixture. Next sprinkle some mozzarella cheese and some of the remaining 3/4 cup Parmesan. Continue for 1 more layer. Top with lasagna sheets, some sun-dried tomato mixture, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Add pancetta to top and dot the top with butter. Bake until the ingredients are warm and the cheese is melted, about 25 minutes.