So what do you do when you have over 10 pounds of leftover Italian sausage? You put them to good use (Don’t ask where they came from). My son was determined to eat sausages for a week straight but his sister wanted no parts of that. I was able to create 4 meals before having to call it quits. The following are pics of the dishes (requested by the kids).
Sausage and Potato Hash
Thin Spaghetti with Toamto sauce and Italian Sausage
Close of the meal
Italian Sausage Pizza on freshly made flat bread wih a seasoned ricotta base
Scrambled Cheese Eggs with pan-fried Italian Sausage and a warm tortilla
What are some dishes you might have created using Italian Sausages?
Go buy a pound of Italian Sausages and see what you can create. Now go forward and make memories
At any given moment I can whip up something scrumptious in my kitchen. All because I keep what i consider staple items in my pantry. Things I feel with a little time and some effort can be transformed into a meal. So what do I consider staples?
Pasta (1 long noodle i.e. spaghetti or fettuccine and 1 short noodle i.e. macaroni or rigatoni)
Stock or broth ( I keep chicken. beef and vegetable in the 32 oz size)
Flour (all-purpose & self-rising)
Rice
Oil (I like canola for frying & olive oil for sauteing)
Canned tomatoes (diced and pureed)
Canned beans ( black, pinto red or your favorite)
Onions
Bell peppers (I prefer colored to green ones)
Assortment of frozen vegetables (i.e. broccoli, mixed vegetables,corn)
Ground beef
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Butter
Eggs
Milk
With a combination of just a few of these items you can have a wonderful meal. For instance you can make a quick pasta e fagioli ( broth, short pasta, diced tomatoes, a can of beans) or maybe a vegetable fried rice( oil, cooked rice, frozen mixed vegetables, onions) or even chili ( ground beef, beans, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers). Once you have the basics or the items that you use repeatedly in cooking you will always be prepared to whip something great up.
P.S. My pantry list is a little longer than the one I have included because I have a pretty sized family and lots of friends who like stop by to eat)
P.S.S. This post is dedicated to my son, Akeem, the newly wed and apparently the chef in his new household
So many people knock using jar sauce…well I use jar sauce. I don’t have the time to make sauce from scratch, so I do the next best thing…. I doctor up a jar of sauce. Now you may be asking what do I mean by doctoring a jar of sauce? Well we can compare it to surgery…we just aren’t cutting up any people. First things first you’re gonna need a jar of sauce. I went with Ragu because it was on sale.
Now here’s where the cutting begins. I started by dicing onions, bell peppers and portabella mushrooms.
I then took about a pound of ground beef and browned it off. Added some sausage and some diced bacon.
After I added the diced vegetables along with a can of diced tomatoes ( you see I like a chunky sauce).
Now what most people don’t understand about cooking is that it is not a true science. It’s about what you like and how it makes you feel. You have to find out what works for you and your palette and make it WORK.
I love, love , love a lot of garlic ( especially in Italian food). Maybe that doesn’t work for you ( guess what don’t add it). After that’s done I added the jar of sauce and began a prescription of seasonings. Thyme, crushed pepper flakes, kosher salt, black pepper, dried Italian herbs and some slow simmering……
Sauce fit for a king
Let your imagination and your taste buds run free when trying to doctor a jar of sauce. maybe you want to add just vegetables,,,, diced or shredded zucchini, carrots, spinach, sweet peas or maybe you want to try adding seafood, or alternative to ground beef…It’s all up to you.
Now because I’m always taking it to the next level I decided I would doctor the pasta, too. I used thin spaghetti cooked according to to package directions. Then I sauteed garlic with red pepper flakes in olive oil, making sure not to burn the garlic ( nothing worst than the taste of burned garlic)
Then I added the pasta with some of the cooking water and minced parsley. Time to serve it up
