Chicken Sausage Sweet Potato Bake

So, we eat a lot of chicken sausage. Not just any chicken sausage, although, will do. It is from a great grocery store in Long island called John's Farms, where it is made on site, and there really isn't any other chicken sausage comparable. It is very fresh tasting and much lower in fat than other sausages. It is the thin ring style and we have came up with many different variations on preparation. Normally in the summer the best thing to do is put a skewer through it, splash on some olive oil and throw it on the grill. But recently I tried a new method that turned out to be delicious and extraordinarily healthy, which most of the time those two are somewhat mutually exclusive, and on top of that it is beautiful looking and very colorful.

So basically it is a bake, very hearty with a Tuscan feel and look, of chicken sausage, sweet potatoes, spinach, cannellini beans, onion and garlic. Here's the recipe:

Chicken sausage - 1 lb - cut into 1 inch pieces and browned in olive oil

Sweet potatoes - 2 large - washed and cut into chunks

Spinach - 1/2 lb frozen, chopped

Cannellini beans - 1 can, organic

Onion - 1, yellow, small, chopped

Garlic - 5 cloves, chopped

Olive Oil - extra virgin

Salt, pepper and whole nutmeg

Pre heat the oven to 375. Cut the chicken sausage into one inch pieces and brown in a pan with olive oil. After the chicken sausage is browned on all sides place it all in a large baking/casserole dish. Add the sweet potatoes, spinach, beans, onion and garlic and mix well all together. Add salt and pepper liberally or to your preference, and grate some fresh nutmeg on top. Cover with foil and place in oven. Bake covered for 30 minutes, take out of oven, mix, put back in uncovered for 10 minutes. 

Fresh Tomato Chili

a mix of 10 large red yellow and green tomatoes - poached and peeled. quart of chicken stock. 1 large chopped onion, 6 cloves garlic, mix of 4 large yellow red and green bell peppers, 1 long green chillies. 1/2  lb cubed then browned sirloin and 1 lb ground chuck, lots of chili powder, i can red kidney beans, 1 can large white butter beans, salt pepper. 1 large can organic diced tomatoes. cook for 2 hours. serve with a big spoonful of sour cream and chopped scallions..real good. 

Pane Salsiccia

During my undergrad study in Rome, I think somewhere around 03, an Italian riend of mine brought me to a small enoteca called Nuvolari, just 4 blocks east of Vatican city on Borgo Vittorio at Via degli Ombrellari 10. Besides the very cool atmosphere, all wood, lots of candles lit in old wine bottles covered in wax drippings, an excellent wine selection and not to mention the free buffet served in the evenings, there was one dish in particular that has stuck with me since that I have been trying over the years and have come up with two versions of it that work really well. The dish is called Pane Salsiccia and it is a ground pork sausage pate with white truffle on small crostini. Here's how to do it.

Ingredients:

Sweet or Mild Pork Sausages in casings - 1 lb

White Onion - 1 large, chopped

Garlic - 2 cloves chopped

Nutmeg - ground, 1 tsp

Olive Oil - 2 tbs

White Truffle Oil - 2 tbs

Baguette - sliced into 1 inch thick pieces

Salt & Pepper - 2 tsp each

Parsley - 1 tbs dry or fresh

Take all of the sausage out of the casing by slicing them down the center. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent then add sausage. Stir and mash into small pieces until fully cooked, add nutmeg, salt and pepper and 1 tsp of truffle oil and stir well. After cooked put the mixture into a food processor and mix, adding olive oil if necessary, until it becomes a smooth pate. Heat the oven to 350. Place the crostini on a large baking sheet and spread some olive oil on each, toast until slightly golden. Spread a generous potion of the sausage pate on each crostino then drizzle the rest of the truffle oil on top of each and bake again for about 8 minutes. When done sprinkle some parsley on top and if you like some grated romano cheese. 

Garlic Risotto with Yellow Zucchini Squash and Tomatoes

Needed a lite and flavorful carbohydrate for last night's dinner and came up with this: I made a basic garlic risotto and added Yellow Zucchini Squash and Tomatoes.

It is incredibly easy and fast.

Ingredients:

Arborio Rice - 1 cup

Water or Chicken Stock - 2 - 3 cups

Yellow Zucchini Squash - 1 cup chopped

Cherry tomatoes - 1/2 cup sliced

Garlic - 2 cloves chopped

Butter - 2 tbs

Olive Oil - 1 tbs

Salt and Pepper - to taste

Melt butter and olive oil in a large pan on medium heat, add garlic and saute for a minute. Add chopped Zucchini and saute for 1 minuet. 

Add rice dry and mix and saute for several minutes.

Add first cup of water or stock and mix well and reduce heat to a low simmer. Stir frequently for several minutes until the water is absorbed then add the next cup. 

Stir frequently again and add the rest of the water if needed. 

When rice becomes soft add the chopped tomatoes to the top, sale and pepper to taste, stir once then remove to a bowl and let sit for several minutes before serving.

Add some grated parmesan or romano cheese just before serving.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I made this several weeks back for my girlfriend and her friends for brunch and it came out pretty well and was quite easy to make. heres how i did it.

2 large heads broccoli chopped into small pieces, you can leave out the bottom 2 inches or so of the stem but the rest can be used.

1 qt chicken stock

1 large onion - minced

3 stocks celery - minced

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 stick butter

olive oil

2 medium potatoes peeled and chopped into small pieces

1/2 qt water

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tsp salt or to taste

3 tsp pepper or to taste

in a large deep pot saute onion, garlic and celery in a bit of olive oil and the butter until soft. add potatoes and broccoli and stir. add chicken stock and bring to a boil, covered, for about 30 mins or until the broccoli and potatoes are fully cooked. 

use an immersion blender or regular blender and blend all together until smooth. add the water and heavy cream, stir in well, and blend again. cook over low heat for about 30 mins. add salt and pepper to taste at the end. 

i put a bit of regular sour cream on top just before serving

(you can use more butter and/or cream depending on how fatty, and tasty, you want it)

Polenta Rounds w/ Pulled Chicken

This is a really easy yet amazing looking appetizer that I came up with recently when in the mood for something fresh and a bit spicy. 

Ingredients:

Polenta - easiest to buy the precooked roll of polenta, I got mine from Trader Joe's 

Red bell pepper

1 lb boneless and skinless chicken thighs

1 tsp Saffron

1 qt Chicken stock

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

parsley

1/2 cup goat cheese

1 cup ricotta cheese

olive oil

canola oil

salt

pepper

cut polenta rounds at about 1/4 inch thick each until you have as many as you need to serve. lightly salt and pepper the rounds and set aside for a bit. cut the chicken thighs into about 2 inch strips. mince onion and garlic. add a bit of olive oil to a deep pot and turn on medium high. saute the onion, garlic and saffron for several minutes and then add the chicken. brown on all sides and then add the chicken stock. lower heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is able to be pulled apart with a fork into thin strips. 

for the rounds - in a large flat pan add some canola oil and turn heat to medium high. place rounds in and saute until they start to become a bit brown and then flip. this will take about 3 minutes per side. remove from pan and place on paper towel to drain oil. 

mix goat and ricotta cheese with a pinch of salt and pepper

cut wafer thin slices of the red pepper. place several slices on the polenta rounds. add a bit of the pulled chicken, then a spoonful of the cheese mixture, parsley on top.  

Original Italian Suppli

My time in Rome from 2002 to 2006 was the absolute height of my culinary expansion from what I knew as Italian food to authentic Italian cuisine. I have enjoyed some of the best meals of my life thus far there and not just in sit-down restaurants. It is quite possible that over the years I was able to taste pizza from a majority of the pizza shops in Rome yet something that most every one of them sell, suppli, was something that I was always too distracted by the amazing assortment of fresh wood burning oven pizza to try too often. Recently some friends from Rome came to a dinner at my apartment in New York and I wanted to make something different that the normal Italian favorites we make when we are together so I decided to make suppli for one of our appetizers.

Suppli are small egg shaped rice balls stuffed with cheese and/or meat, fried and served with a marinara dipping sauce. Doesn't sound too complicated or involved, right? Well several days before the dinner I played with several different recipes and variations and came up with what I believe are the next best thing to suppli at the best spot in Rome. I stuck to a very traditional method, and went with just a cheese filling rather than meat and cheese. Here's the recipe:

yields about 12

Ingredients:

super fino arborio rice - 2 cups

2 cups of crushed tomatoes, canned or fresh, no skins

1/2 stick of salted butter

1/2 lb of fresh mozzarella, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

2 cups plain bread crumbs

4 eggs

2 cups flour

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

canola oil - enough to fill a large deep frying pan with about 2 inches

preparation:

add 1 tablespoon of butter to a large frying pan on medium heat

add all of the rice and mix well

saute the rice for about 3 or 4 minutes or just until you see a translucence in the rice

add two cups of water, stir well

add the crushed tomatoes, stir well

add the rest of the butter in small chunks, stir well

turn down the heat to medium low and let the rice simmer for five minutes. stir the rice well and add 1 cup of water. let cook for another several minutes. taste a piece of the rice to make sure it is semi soft. If it is not soft, add 1/2 cup of water and stir and heat for several more minutes. All in all it should take about 20 minutes or so to cook thoroughly.

Once the rice is cooked take off heat and add the parmesan and eggs and stir well.

Take the mixture out of the pan and onto a sheet pan to let cool. Then place in a container and refrigerate for several hours or until the whole mixture has cooled.

heat the canola oil in the deep frying pan to a temperature of over 250 degrees.

Take out the mixture and fill the palm of your hand with about 1/2 cup. Place a mozzarella cube into the middle and begin to ball the rice around the cheese until it is totally covered, you may need to add a bit more rice to the top to cover. make sure that you gently pack the rice around the cheese so that it is a firm ball. Place the ball onto a cool baking tray. repeat this until your mixture is gone.

Now set up three bowls, one with the bread crumbs, one with the other two eggs, beaten, and one with the flour. dip the ball into the flour and cover, then the egg, then the bread crumbs so it is completely covered and set back on baking tray. Once you have completed this breading process with all of the balls the oil should be to temperature and ready to fry.

Gently place the balls into the oil. make sure not to overcrowd the pan. You will notice a dark browning on the bottom within 2 minutes, turn each ball over and let fry for up to another two minutes but continuously check to make sure that are not becoming too cooked. See the picture here of finished suppli to gauge doneness

Once the whole ball is cooked evenly take out of the oil and place on a large paper towel on a large platter.

Normally I serve these with a home made basil marinara sauce but you can serve them with any kind of sauce that you like. I will post my recipe for basil marinara here shortly.