Simple Spring Pasta: Wild Mushroom Kale and Sausage over Tagliatelle

 

The other day we found ourselves without any plan of what to make for dinner. Bryan was in the mood for something light, fresh, healthy, and in season. He wandered into Eataly and picked up whatever looked good, and pieced together this delicious pasta dish. Kale is definitely in season now, and it looked great, so that was added to the dish. There was also a wide array of wild mushrooms. He picked up some oyster mushrooms, blue mushrooms, and lobster mushrooms. The sausage was freshly made, so he grabbed some of that. And then of course, the base - fresh, whole wheat tagliatelle seemed like the perfect vessel to carry all of these beautiful ingredients.

So this pasta dish of wild mushrooms, kale, and sausage in a white wine butter sauce was born, and now we'll share it with you. It's a light, quick, and simple dish, but one that really satisfies. The whole wheat pasta actually is an important contributor here as it's earthy flavor adds another layer of complexity to the dish. If you're unable to find wild mushrooms, any mushroom would suffice. Baby portobello's would be great, or shittake, or any other kind. And if you want to leave the sausage out, just add a little extra salt and fennel to make up the difference.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 link sweet Italian pork sausage, removed from casing and crumbled
1 bunch kale, sliced into ribbons
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp chile flakes
1/2 lb whole wheat pasta
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
Pecorino romano to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

When all of your ingredients are chopped up and prepared, melt the butter into a skillet with the olive oil over medium heat. Add in the garlic and chile flakes and cook for a minute until they become fragrant. Then into the pan, add in the mushrooms. Cook them for about 7 minutes. They'll exude their liquid after a few minutes, and at this point, add in the sausage. If at any point the garlic looks like it's getting over cooked, add in a splash of the white wine.

Start boiling the water and add some salt. Continue to cook the mushrooms and sausage until the sausage is browned on all sides. Then add in the remaining white wine and cook everything together until the white wine is reduced by half, 5 - 7 minutes. The sausage should be cooked through at this point, break one of the bigger crumbles open to check.

Once the sausage is cooked through, add in the kale, and stir everything together. Cook until the kale is wilted. Remove from heat.

Cook the pasta until 1 minute shy of the package directions. If you're using fresh pasta, this should only be about 2 minutes. At the 1 minute shy mark, turn on the heat on your sausage kale and mushroom skillet, and add in a hefty ladle of the pasta water. Shake it around so that it gets nicely incorporated and combines with the rest of the sauce.

Add the pasta directly to the skillet with the sausage, kale, and mushrooms, and toss together over medium heat until all of the excess liquid has been absorbed by the pasta. Add more pasta water if needed to get to your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve garnished with grated pecorino romano cheese, and enjoy!









One Year Ago: Fettuccine with Lamb Ragu

The "Best" Spaghetti all'Amatriciana

 

Spaghetti all' Amatriciana is one of those classic pasta dishes that you can find just about anywhere. This is probably because it's extremely simple, quick to make, and very tasty. We've created our own version here that uses a lighter sauce that just barely coats the pasta, letting the onion and pancetta really stand out.

This is one of those meals that we make some nights when we've got some leftover pancetta (or bacon, or any other sort of cured pork) and aren't really feeling like making a big, high effort feast. In fact, there's a good chance that you've got everything you need for this already! So, take a look at the recipe below and give it a try!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
2 - 3 oz pancetta
1/2 red onion, cut into strips
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 lb spaghetti

Start off by chopping up the pancetta into small cubes - to about the size you'd want to eat them. Then place them in a sauté pan with the olive oil and cook over medium heat until the fat renders from the pancetta and it gets slightly caramelized.

Start boiling the water with a touch of salt. Cook the spaghetti until 1 minute shy of the package directions. While the pasta is cooking, finish making your sauce.

Into the pan with the pancetta, add in the red onion. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium high heat until it is fairly soft and somewhat caramelized. Then add in the garlic and cook for 2 - 3 minutes more. Finally, add in the tomato paste. Place it on the side of the pan where there's no veggies or pancetta and let it cook for a minute or so directly on the heat. Then stir it into the red onion and pancetta and get fully incorporated into the veggies.

As the pasta is finishing cooking, take a ladle of pasta water and pour it into the sauté pan. Stir to incorporate full. This will create a slight, light sauce out of the water and the tomato paste.

Grab the spaghetti with tongs and place it into the pan with the pancetta and onion. Add in the chopped parsley, and toss to combine over medium heat. Add in more pasta water if necessary. Serve garnished with grated pecorino romano.



The Result
The red onions are slightly sweet after caramelization, the pancetta is savory, salty, and hearty.

Everything is held together by this perfectly delicate tomato sauce that just barely coats the pasta, which really lets the pancetta and red onion shine through.

This is in my opinion the perfect version of Spaghetti all'Amatriciana, but we know there are plenty of variations. Have a favorite version of your own? Let us know about it in the comments below!

One Year Ago: Pork and Fennel Meatballs and Jambalaya

Simple Weeknight Dinner: Cavatappi with Sausage and Kale

 

Some pastas really are the sum of their parts. The perfectly shaped noodles being coated by just the right amount of sauce and augmented by just the right savory and hearty ingredients. This is one of those pastas, and it is perfect for this time of year when it's not too hot and not too cold.

This cavatappi with sausage and kale comes together very quickly, and is all bound together by a nice, light coating of tomato sauce. The cavatappi is the perfect shape to embrace the sausage and kale, and the flavors all blend together beautifully.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1 head kale, sliced into  ribbons
1/2 lb sausage, removed from casing
2 cloves garlic
1/2 red onion, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup marinara sauce
1/2 lb cavatappi
pecorino romano
salt and pepper

When all your vegetables are cooked, start to heat up the olive oil in a large sauce pan. When hot, start to sauté the red onion until it is translucent, about 7 minutes. After that, add in the sausage and garlic, and stir to break up the sausage into small pieces. Cook until the sausage is browned on all sides and mostly cooked through, another 7 minutes or so.

Once the sausage has browned and cooked most of the way through, start boiling the water and add in a tablespoon of salt. Cook the cavatappi until 1 minute shy of the package directions.

Into the saucepan with the sausage, add in the kale and stir together, coating entirely, until it starts to wilt. Then add the tomato sauce, and again cook through. Reduce the heat to a simmer.

When the pasta is ready, take a ladle of the pasta water and put it into the sausage and kale mixture. Drain the cavatappi and then place it into the sausage and kale mixture. Toss everything together over high heat until all the moisture is absorbed into the pasta and the pasta has finished cooking, 1 - 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve garnished with grated pecorino romano.





The Result
What more could you ask for from a dish that takes just about 15 minutes to prepare and costs around $7 for two servings? This is great. It's savory and delicious from the sausage, nice greens from the kale, and all bound together with tomato sauce on a delicious bed of pasta.

What's your favorite quick weeknight meal? Let us know in the comments!

One year ago: The Best Burger with Sun-dried Tomato Aoili

Irish-Italian Deliciousness for St. Patrick's Day: Spaghetti with Cabbage and Speck

 

Well it's that time of year - St. Patrick's Day is almost here. And while the food blogosphere is filling up with all things green and alcoholic, we're going to provide you with sustenance so that you can handle all the libations!

Bryan is Italian-Irish, and as such, we're bringing you some Irish inspired Italian meals (or are they Italian inspired Irish meals?) all week long. Today we'll start you off with this delicious spaghetti tossed with cabbage and speck. For those of you who aren't familiar with speck, it's smoked prosciutto. So, it does have that smoky flavor to it, similar to what you'd get with a smoked salmon, but instead of the fishy aftertaste, you get a bacon-y aftertaste. Does it get any better than that?

To make this even more appealing, the whole thing comes together very quickly, and is really easy to do. The limited ingredients make it very affordable as well. Dig in and enjoy as the "primi" for your St. Patrick's Day feast!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1/2 head cabbage, cored and chopped into thin ribbons
2 tbsp olive oil
2 oz speck (or prosciutto or cooked bacon if you can't find speck), cut into julienne
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp chile flakes
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
1/3 lb spaghetti
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot to boil and salt lightly. When it starts to boil, add in the cut up cabbage to the water and cook for 3 - 5 minutes, until the cabbage starts to soften.

While the cabbage is cooking, heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add in the speck and cook until it becomes nice and crispy - about 7 minutes. After about 3 minutes, add in the garlic and chile flakes and stir until the garlic becomes fragrant.

When soft, remove it from the water with tongs or a slotted spoon, and place it into a colander. Rinse with cool water.

Shake the cabbage to get the excess water off and then throw it into the pan with the speck and garlic. Stir together, getting it entirely coated. Season with a grind or two of fresh black pepper, and then remove from heat.

Bring the cabbage water back to a boil and cook the spaghetti until 1 minute shy of the package directions. With two minutes remaining, ladle some of the cooking water into the pan with the cabbage and speck and bring that pan back up to heat.

Add the spaghetti to the pan with the cabbage and speck. Add in the pecorino romano cheese, and toss everything to combine over medium heat. Continue to stir and fold in the cheese and liquid until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the pasta.

Serve, garnished with extra pecorino if desired.









The Result
This is a truly simple, truly tasty, Irish-Italian meal. The cabbage + speck combination gives you an almost corn beef & cabbage sort of flavor profile (almost!), yet the smoothness of the melted cheese in the sauce coating the pasta makes it distinctly Italian.

There are only a few better ways to blend these two cultures, and if you come back Wednesday & Friday this week, we'll show you some other options that might just be even better!

What are you planning on making for St. Patrick's day? Let us know in the comments!

One Year Ago: Eggs with Mustard-Creamed Spinach

Simple yet Gourmet: Marcella Hazan's Pappardelle with Spinach Sauce

We have a lot of cookbooks in our house, and tend to use the Mario Batali ones most frequently because they have pictures. A good cookbook really needs to have pictures. We also have a Marcella Hazan cookbook, and it has very few pictures, so we don't make much from it. But, every time we have made something from it, it's been really, really good. For instance, this shittake mushroom pasta sauce, the chickpea and leek soup, and the quail ragu we made recently (and will be posting soon!).

So when we encountered this recipe for a simple spinach sauce for pasta, hopes were high. The nice thing about Marcella's recipes is that they are very details in terms of the cooking technique. She gives very specific instructions which, in our opinion, lead to the elevation of these dishes to gourmet quality from their humble start with simple ingredients. This spinach sauce for pasta was no different. With just a few ingredients, a delicious, gourmet quality meal was the result.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1 carrot, diced very small
1 rib celery, diced very small
1/2 sweet onion, diced very small
4 oz pancetta, diced very small
3 tbsp, olive oil
4 cups spinach, roughly chopped
1 tbsp, butter
1 15 oz can, whole tomato
1/2 lb, pappardelle
1/4 cup, grated pecorino romano

Get started by prepping all your veggies. As the ingredients list says, these need to be diced very small. See the picture for reference (you can click on it for a bigger version!). In a large saucepan, heat up the olive oil over medium head and then throw in the carrot, celery, and onion. Sauté over medium heat for 5 - 7 minutes, until the onion is golden and the carrots and celery have softened.

Once the carrot and celery have softened, add in the pancetta and continue to cook over medium heat for another 5 - 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pancetta renders its fat and starts to caramelize slightly.

Once the pancetta has cooked, add in the spinach. Add it in one cup at a time, letting it wilt as you go, and stir together. Let it cook for about 15 minutes over medium low heat, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the spinach is very soft. This long cooking time brings out the flavor of the spinach and gives ample time for all of the flavors to combine.

Marcella is a fan of butter and this recipe is no different. After the spinach has cooked about 7 of its 15 minutes, add in the tablespoon of butter, stir together, and then continue cooking until the full 15 minutes has completed.

Add in the can of tomatoes and stir together. You'll want to stir roughly so that the tomatoes break apart. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes will break down during this cooking time and a nice chunky but smooth sauce will have formed.

While the sauce is simmering, cook up your pasta in lightly salted water. Cook it until 1 minute shy of the package directions, then remove the pappardelle from the water and add it to the pot with the spinach sauce. Add in your grated pecorino romano, a touch of the pasta water, and stir everything together over high heat until the consistency of the sauce is right where you want it. Serve and enjoy!







The Results
Gourmet quality. That's the best way to describe this. The spinach sauce is smooth, yet hearty, and has a distinctively earthy yet almost sweet flavor, with the carrots, celery, onion, and pancetta adding to the overall texture and flavor of each bite.

The added cooking time is what seems to elevate this - we tried to make a quicker version a few days later with the leftover spinach, just stirring it into a sauce, and it was not the same. By cooking the spinach longer, it has a much better consistency and flavor.

What's your favorite way to prepare spinach? Let us know in the comments!

One year ago:  Spaghetti Carbonara and Corn and Potato Chowder