There are a few things that I am passionate about in this world, one of which I just realized recently. It makes me wonder if passion isn’t really that mind numbing addiction to something such as alcohol or cigarettes. You know, a positive addiction. I get that way about things, to the point where it blends that line between the two. It’s the way I get over coffee or beer or even sparkling water! I guess being really passionate about something is a positive because you gain mostly positive results with passion, although once again those who have a passion for someone and take it too far………stalking anyone? …………. there we are back to the negative and more the addictive side of passion, hmmmmmm.
Addiction and passion, what a concept and all I really wanted to talk about was my newly discovered ______ (insert your noun of choice), for food! In particular my love of cooking food! Maybe it is because I cook for my family, in particular my two boys, food that I want them to enjoy, and because they do and tell me so, it fuels my interest in the products, process and production!
I stole this recipe from a very good friend of ours in Italy, not that she is a great chef in a fine dining establishment or anything, she is a mom and a business owner. But she made for us the best pasta dish I have ever had on one visit and I held her down until she told me the secret! Maybe cookery is in the blood over there, for it seems that all moms in Italy are incredible cooks, including my mother in law. Probably stems from years of family history living close to the land and its products, or maybe it’s just the fact that home cooking tastes so much better then boxed pizza!
This recipe consists of very few ingredients and is so easy to make that you wouldn’t think it would wow you with flavor, instead it is a wonderful, inviting, silky warm dish that should inspire all that try it! This is the beauty of Italian cooking, simple basic ingredients cooked with passion and love! Maybe that last part is the secret to good tasting food! And I just spilled it, my apologies to all those moms out there for giving away their secret! I shall hang my head in shame.
Anyhow, the ingredients are: onion, celery, garlic, diced tomatoes, sausage, olive oil, salt, pepper and peperoncino. Peperoncino is an Italian hot pepper but any hot pepper will do.
All that is required to do is to dice the onion and start to cook that in a large pan along with some olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper, as that starts to simmer add the peperoncino and dice the celery. Add the celery when the onions are jumping and stir until the celery starts to soften, at this point crumble in the sausages, you must remove the casing first, and mix with the onion and celery. Brown the sausage at a fairly high heat making sure there are no large chunks. As the sausage is cooking, crush several cloves of garlic into the pot and stir in well. When the sausage is cooked add in the diced tomatoes. I confess, I use diced tomatoes from the can but I make sure I use the type that has no sodium, this way you can control the salt content, don’t forget sausages are fairly salty. I let these ingredients cook pretty aggressively and after about eight minutes I break up the tomatoes and sausage further with a fork, trying to make everything uniform. Bring it down to a light simmer and leave covered, stirring occasionally for ten or fifteen minutes. You can finish it with a touch of basil,salt and olive oil as needed. Add your cooked pasta of choice directly to the pan and stir all ingredients together coating all the pasta. My pasta preference for this is farfalle but any short pasta will do and don’t forget when cooking your pasta to salt the water before adding the pasta. Transfer to a serving dish and Mangia! Buon Apetito!
It really is a quick and simple dish that you can serve with a vegetable and call it dinner, or serve as a first coarse in an invitation only black tie event! Hope you enjoy it as we do!
