Cavatelli with Sausage, Radicchio and Bread Crumbs

Solo dinner night, so I get to eat pork - hot italian sausage, specifically. But I also found myself with an abundance of creme fraiche, a head of fancy radicchio, and a craving for pasta, hence this dish.

Cavatelli with Sausage, Radicchio and Bread Crumbs
serves 2, or one hungry lady with leftovers for lunch

1/2 pound cavatelli or other curly type pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
4-5 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 pound hot italian sausage, casings removed (squeeze it toothpaste style!)
1 small head radicchio (treviso if you can find it), cut into 1/4-1/2 inch ribbons
1 cup creme fraiche
freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs, toasted in a toaster oven until dark golden brown (careful not to burn them!)
freshly grated parmesan

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When it's boiling, drop the pasta. Cook until a minute less than it says on the box or until just before al dente.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat and add the green onions, saute 1-2 minutes. Add the sausage, and cook until brown, breaking up into small pieces. Move the sausage and onions to the outside edges of the pan and add the radicchio to the center. Cook until wilted, then stir. Add the creme fraiche, it will melt rapidly, just stir it in. Let the whole mess bubble until thickened, or until the pasta is almost cooked.

When the pasta is still firm, use a large slotted spoon or a spider to remove it from the water and add it to the skillet. Stir it all up, let it simmer until the pasta is cooked all the way (less than a minute). Remove to a plate, top with bread crumbs for crunch and parmesan for added deliciousness.

NB: you probably won't need to add salt, given the saltiness of the sausage, but taste it as you go and add salt if necessary.

Roasted Lamb Sausage with Grapes

My mom is one of those people who can strike up a conversation with just about anybody: in the grocery store, or the dentist's waiting room, or in this particular case, on the bus. A couple of weeks ago she came down to Boston for the day, and made a new friend of her seatmate on the bus ride back up to Maine. Her new friend, as it turns out, has a son, and the son has a brand new butcher shop up in Wales, Maine.

Seeing as Wales is only an hour from where my parents live, and having recently been introduced to the glories of braising (and consequently on the hunt for beef cheeks), Mom decided this butcher shop was worth the drive. Luckily for me, Mom understands that gifts of quality meat make my little heart go pitter pat and so she bought me a few pounds of garlicky lamb sausages while she was there.



Tonight I seared those sausages quickly, then tossed them in a baking dish and piled a whole mess of red grapes on top. Next to a pile of wild rice, they made a most excellent dinner. Thanks, Mom!

Roasted Lamb Sausages with Grapes
Adapted from Molly Wizenberg

Yes, you could absolutely use pork or turkey or chicken sausages here, just make sure they're not the pre-cooked ones. My lamb sausages were pretty narrow (hot dog size, rather than sausage size) so yours might take a touch longer to cook through.

1/2 to 3/4 pounds of lamb sausages
1 pound red grapes, stems removed, washed
2 teaspoons vegetable oil for browning the sausages, plus
2 teaspoons vegetable oil to toss with the grapes
1/2 a glass of dry white wine
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 475.

Toss the grapes with two teaspoons of oil and set aside. Heat a 10 or 11 inch skillet (stainless steel is best, I always like cast iron for searing but you're going to pour acidic ingredients in and you don't want to mess up your seasoning) over medium high heat. Add two teaspoons of vegetable oil and swirl it around to coat the bottom of the pan, then add your sausages. After the first side browns (a couple of minutes if you've heated your pan enough, flip them over and brown the other side. Once both sides are nice and brown, remove the sausages to a baking dish.

Pour in the half glass of wine, it should steam up and bubble and hiss. Scrape up the brown bits in the pan, then shut off the heat. Put the grapes on top of the sausages in the baking dish, then put it in the oven. If your sausages are narrow like mine, flip them after ten minutes. They should be done cooking ten minutes after that for a total oven time of twenty minutes.  Larger sausages will need a little more time to cook through. Remove the baking dish from the oven, and put the sausages on a plate (tent loosely with foil if you like so they stay warm). Pour the grapes and whatever juicy stuff has accumulated in the dish back into the pan you seared the sausages in and crank up the heat. Let this mess boil away for a bit until the grapes have all collapsed and the liquid has thickened. Add a pinch of salt to taste, then serve over the sausages.

We ate this with mixed wild rices, but I wish I had something green on the plate, too. Sauteed spinach or kale would have been great.

Fried Chickpeas with Sausage and Spinach

I have a thing for garbanzo beans. I eat them at least three times a week in soup, or salads, or as hummus, and I'm always on the lookout for a new way to use my favorite bean. When I saw Mark Bittman's Fried Chickpeas with Chorizo and Spinach in last week's New York Times I put it immediately into rotation.

I followed the method and the main ingredients of the recipe, but I did make one pretty big change. Instead of chorizo, I used spicy chicken sausage that I squeezed out of the casings and broke it into bits as it cooked. I wanted to stay true to the flavors of the original, so I added a scant half teaspoon of smoked hot paprika (pimentón de la vera) as the chickpeas and sausage cooked, and I think I could have been more generous with it.

Finally, I forgot the sherry. Oops! I didn't have any in the house, but I had thought it through and I was going to use dry vermouth or maybe a splash of vinegar to cut some of the oil a bit, and while I LOVED this the way I made it, it was missing that added depth that wine gives a dish. When I make it again (which will be very soon) I will not be so forgetful.

Fried Chickpeas with Sausage and Spinach
adapted from Mark Bittman at the New York Times
serves 3-4

Don't skip the drying off the chickpeas step, or they won't get crispy and browned, they'll just stay sort of mushy. I like mushy beans just fine, but that's not really what you're going for here.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 can (or two cups) cooked chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
3 links spicy chicken sausage, casings removed (1/2 - 3/4 lb)
1/2 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
salt and pepper
10 oz spinach (if you use grown up spinach, remove the tough stems and tear the leaves into smaller pieces)
approximately 1 cup bread crumbs (I used panko, but homemade breadcrumbs -sandwich bread whizzed in the food processor - would be ideal here)
1/4 cup sherry, dry vermouth or white wine OR a splash of wine vinegar

Heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the chickpeas in one layer and cook, shaking or stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Then add the pimentón and chicken sausage, breaking it up in the pan with a wooden spoon. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the sausage is cooked through and the chickpeas have taken on some color. Remove to a bowl using a slotted spoon.

Add the spinach and sherry to the oil remaining in the pan and saute until the spinach is thoroughly wilted down and liquid has evaporated, 5-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add the chickpeas and sausage in one layer on top of the spinach. Turn on your broiler.

Sprinkle the dish with the breadcrumbs, drizzle with a little more olive oil if you like, and stick it under the broiler for a couple of minutes until the breadcrumbs brown.