summer pasta, wine, and best friend

The bestie is in town and this means eating home cooked meals on the reg with company! Since the theme of this week seems to have been death by lettuce, we dutifully built a mini salad of red leaf lettuce, tomato, and cucumber to accompany dinner. Fairly boring, still tasty. More interesting was the main dish: pasta with escarole and sausage.

I had some leftover sausage in the freezer and the logic was that sausage in all its meaty heartiness (lol) would be our saving grace, balancing the escarole and keep us from feeling like reincarnated rabbits. I deliberately kept everything light and simple though, because it’s summer and it’s hot. A chilled bottle of pinot grigio was a perfect complement to dinner and I wondered what it would be like if me and the bestie lived just a little closer. Wistful thoughts :/

Pasta with Escarole and Sausage

Ingredients:

-          1 head escarole

-          2 sausage links

-          Minced garlic

-          ½ white onion

-          1 box spaghetti or pasta of choice

-          Red pepper flakes

-          Salt, pepper

-          Olive oil

Directions:

1.       Wash the escarole thoroughly and tear into bite size pieces.

2.       Chop onion and set aside.

3.       Chop sausage into bite size chunks.

4.       Cook pasta for ~10 minutes or until al dente.

5.       While pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a (very) large pan. Add onion and garlic, stirring frequently to keep from burning and seasoning lightly with salt. When the onion just starts to turn translucent, add sausage chunks. Cook until sausage is lightly browned.

6.       Add escarole, one big handful at a time (to keep pan from overflowing). Season with red pepper flakes and salt. When escarole is cooked through (3-5 minutes), remove from heat and set aside.

7.       Drain cooked pasta, reserving one cup of pasta water.

8.       Add pasta to the pan. Drizzle with olive oil and heat everything together over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add reserved pasta water as necessary.

9.       Serve and enjoy!

Tomato Sauce from Scratch

This weekend ended up being a little less domestic and a lot more crazy than expected. I need a month long detox. But I did manage to get around to making my tomato sauce!

My roommate, his friend, and yours truly, were bumming around the apartment on Saturday evening with no energy left for going out to eat dinner. We debated ordering takeout, but I really needed to use up my tomatoes, so I told the boys I'd cook pasta. They seemed skeptical, but they took a leap of faith and agreed to eat pasta for dinner. They even offered to help in the kitchen :)

The tomato sauce was sort of improvised, but I was pretty happy with it.

Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 jalapeno peppers
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 onions
- 6 medium tomatoes
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 package pasta
- salt and pepper to taste
- a bit of olive oil

Recipe:
1. Peel and chop onions. Thinly slice the garlic cloves.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Toss in onions and garlic.
3. Wash and chop tomatoes into small chunks.
4. Stir the onions and garlic occasionally until the onions turn slightly translucent.
5. Add tomatoes to the pan.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the pan simmer, stirring occasionally.
7. Put a pot of water on to boil.
8. When water reaches the boiling point, add pasta.
9. Boil the pasta for 10-12 minutes, or until al dente.
10. Drain pasta and set aside.
11. Chop up the jalapenos and basil leaves. Add to the pan.
12. Stir the tomato sauce and let it simmer until most of the liquid has boiled off. If the sauce is too thick, add water.
13. Ladle sauce over the pasta and serve. Garnish with extra basil leaves if desired.

Note: Be careful with the jalapenos! We were informed by my roommate's friend that the peppers "weren't that hot." Turns out, they were. If you're worried about making the sauce too spicy, remove the seeds and the white pith (this is the spiciest part of the pepper) or just omit the jalapenos altogether.

The boys were impressed, especially since there was no meat in the pasta. We were all happily fueled up for a night out, I used up a lot of my leftover CSA share, and I didn't even have to do the dishes afterwards! I'd say it was a success.