Sunday, May 13, 2007

Everyone should have an extending joke fork...

...to save the day when cooking hot sausage-zucchini pasta!

After a wonderful trans-atlantic chat with Mandounette this afternoon, I went to Chelsea Market, where I was inspired to pick up the ingredients for one of my favorite dishes. An extension of one of my childhood vegetable favorites (my mom's zucchini sautéed with olive oil, onions and Sicilian capers--the ones packed in salt), I add whatever I'm in the mood for to create a pasta dish--sometimes chicken, sometimes fresh herbs, etc. My Sicilian side is always in the mood for sausage, so today I decided to pick up a pound of hot sausage from Buon Italia (I prefer Espositio's on 9th Ave. and 38th, but they're closed on Sundays, so I went with what I could get, which turned out to be pretty good, too).

It's a relatively easy dish to prepare (and ended up being its usual yummy self), but while I was balancing its various ingredients in spots throughout my teeny kitchen, I managed to dump lots of the zucchini onto the floor between the stove and the wall. Great... Thank God for the bottle of wine I'd picked up and my magically-extending joke fork.

Hot Sausage-Zucchini Pasta

1 lb. hot Italian sausage, removed from casings
1 lb zucchini, sliced
1 medium-sized onion, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp. Sicilian capers (the ones packed in salt, not brine)
1 tbsp. pesto
olive oil
1 lb pasta of your choice

Cook the pasta as you prepare the following:

Sauté garlic in olive oil for a few seconds, then add sausage until cooked, breaking it up into chunks as you go. Add the onion, cook for about 1 minute, then add the zucchini, capers, and pesto. Cover, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is almost cooked. Add drained pasta and toss to coat. Serve with freshly-ground black pepper and freshly-grated Parmesan.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Eggy Madness


I was starving on Sunday and all geared up to construct a tortilla/cheese lunch thing. But then all my tortillas were moldy. So, in my desperation for cheese and carbs I frantically whipped up 3 eggs with a little cream, then folded in mashed potato leftovers, poured it into an olive-oiled round cake pan, plopped in some cheddar, sea salt and sliced jalapenos. Baked it for 20 minutes at 400(?), then broiled it brown. When I served it I drizzled some fresh (as in pressed this year) new olive oil. It wasn't half bad, and it tasted better the next day.

Raisin Remix


So, I am a big fan of the Trader Joe's Thai Lime Peanut snack mix. Great with pre-dinner drinks, the kids love 'em. Or when I am really desperate they are a meal.

I added raisins to the bowl and it made it a million times better. The mix can be really hot and this balanced it out. If you really want to burn your ass, eat a raisin at the same time as one of the red chilies. Whoa!