Weekly Dish

If you like your lasagna cut into perfect squares, standing up straight and regal because the filling holds it in place, this is not the recipe for you. This lasagna is messy, the filling spilling out of the noodle layers as soon as it hits the plate, more an amorphous blob than a straight-edged quadrilateral. On the other hand, if you’re more concerned about flavor than geometric preciseness, the earthy portabello mushrooms and rich tomato sauce dance together under fluffy ricotta, stringy mozzarella, and tangy Parmesan to completely make up for their unwillingness to stay in place between the noodles.

Plus, after a few quick prep steps, it’s just a matter of getting everything into the casserole in the right order. I stopped cooking my lasagna noodles before assembly a long time ago; I’ve found that if you place a layer of sauce on the bottom of the dish, lay the noodles squarely in it, and then make sure every other noodle layer is covered with either sauce or cheese, they will come out of the oven cooked every time. The other trick is to make sure you cook the lasagna tightly covered with foil for most of the baking time.

Roasting the vegetables ahead of time punches up their flavor before they go into the lasagna, and makes them work nicely with the Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce that I use for the base. This recipe is very versatile; I’m sure many combinations of vegetables and cheeses would work, but this is my old standby. If you’re looking for lasagna ideas, my friend Rorie recently made a zucchini one with tomato-orange sauce that sounds delicious too.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

6 portabello mushroom caps, sliced
1 small eggplant, sliced
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Lasagna noodles, about 9
1 recipe Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce
6 ounces ricotta cheese
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
Parmesan, grated to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay the eggplant slices flat inside a mesh strainer; sprinkle with salt and let the moisture drain out, about 20 minutes or so. Wipe off any excess salt and pat dry. Toss the slices with olive oil, lay in a single layer on a baking sheet, and roast for about 35 minutes. Toss the mushroom slices with oil as well; sprinkle with salt, and slide them into the oven when the eggplant has about 20 minutes to go (the mushrooms will roast in about 15 minutes.) Remove vegetables from the oven and turn the temp down to 350.
In a square baking dish, cover the bottom with one layer of tomato sauce. Lay a single layer of lasagna noodes in the sauce. Top the noodles with dollops of ricotta cheese and shred a light layer of Parmesan over. On top of the ricotta, place a layer of mushroom and eggplant slices. Repeat layers. Cover the whole dish with shredded mozzarella; grate extra Parmesan on top too. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until the sides are bubbly and the cheese is completely melted. You can also remove the foil with 10 minutes of cooking time left; this added step gives the melted cheese a golden brown top.

This recipe is my contribution to ARF/5-a-day Tuesdays over at Sweetnicks.

With seasonal tomatoes still a few months away, I find myself longing for that sweet, fresh taste of summer that you really can’t get from anything else. Here in Louisiana, down in Plaquemines parish, the Creole tomatoes are the ones that get top ratings. A vendor at the local farmer’s market offers fall and spring Creole tomatoes–grown in a hothouse I think–and to tell the truth, they aren’t half bad. They certainly beat the heck out of those watery, mealy ones at the grocery.

But they still aren’t summer tomatoes.

This recipe is one of the ways I tide myself over until the summer ones arrive. Tomato sauce has been a staple in my weekly cooking since I’ve had a kitchen of my own, and this recipe has been tweaked and tweaked until I could make it in my sleep. The sauce is super-easy and so versatile, but the basic premise of roasting the tomatoes for a long time and using plenty of Kosher salt to draw out their juices is really the crux of the preparation.

And believe me, when summer tomatoes arrive, this sauce will taste even sweeter.

Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce

3-4 large tomatoes, chopped

Olive oil to coat

Kosher salt–probably about a tablespoon

Cracked black pepper

1 large yellow onion, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, or chopped if you want the texture

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Arrange the tomatoes on foil-lined baking sheets in a single layer. Drizzle olive oil onto the sheets, and then toss with your hands to make sure all the pieces are coated with oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for about 45 minutes, until they shrivel and begin to blacken around the edges.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan (this will hold all of the sauce, so use a big one). Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook over medium heat until very soft, but not brown–about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. If they soften before the tomatoes are done, turn the heat off. When the tomatoes are done, us a spatula to scrape them, with their juices and the black bits crusted on the baking sheet, into the pan with the onion and garlic. Turn the heat back up to medium, and stir, pressing the tomatoes with the back of your spoon to crush them. Add the canned tomatoes, and simmer this mixture for about 20 minutes.

Varations:

• For a richer, silkier sauce, you can swirl in a couple of tablespoons of butter at the end.
• Red wine adds another layer of depth too: turn the heat up on the onions and garlic and dump in about a half a glass to deglaze the pan before adding the tomatoes.
• You can use chopped tomatoes to keep the chunky texture, or crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce. You can also put the whole thing through the food processor or blender if a smooth texture is what you’re after.
• Portabello mushrooms add an earthy flavor and substance I like if you’re serving the sauce over pasta–you can either add them to the onion-garlic saute, or roast them with the tomatoes. They won’t take as long to cook, about 15-20 minutes.

Ways to use the sauce to follow!

This recipe is my contribution to ARF/5-a-day Tuesday over at Sweetnicks.

(Oscar Night Dish #2: more cheesy humor)

When I planned our Oscar-night menu, little did I know that each of my dishes would end up representing a category winner! The Crash martini, of course, is a nod to the best picture. David and I both thought the film was really excellent, but we were surprised that it beat out the other nominees. How I love an underdog.
These sweet potatoes are named for the other big suprise of the evening: Three-6-Mafia’s “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” which won best original song. (Maybe it wasn’t such a surprise to other people? We just had a hard time visualizing the Academy members voting for gansta rappers. I guess we were wrong!)

Actually, the other thing I was thinking about when I named these was that MTV show, Pimp My Ride. I’ve never seen a whole episode, but some of my students are big fans, so I hear about it. The metaphor is apt, anyway: for this dish, you take plain-jane roasted potatoes, dress them in a glistening, garlic-tinged orange-scented glaze, and they go from tuber-next-door to ghetto fabulous side dish in no time flat. (And now is the time that I refrain from using the phrase bling-bling because I fear that I am getting way too into this whole thing. If only you could see me in my tiara.)

Here’s the recipe:

Pimp’d Out Sweet Potatoes
(or Orange Glazed Sweet Potatoes, if you prefer. Can you imagine ordering these at a restaurant? Ha!)

4 small or 2 large sweet potatoes, diced
Olive oil to coat
Kosher salt
1 clove garlic
1 T. butter
Zest of half an orange
1 T. orange marmalade
1 T. cider vinegar
1 1/2 T. cane syrup or molasses
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the potatoes with enough olive oil to coat, and lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt. Roast for about 30-35 minutes, stirring once about halfway through. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small skillet. Fry the garlic and orange zest until very fragrant and golden brown. Add the marmalade, vinegar, and syrup; cook over medium-low until very thick and syrupy. Take the potatoes out of the oven and pour the glaze over them, turning to coat as many as you can. Put them back into the oven and cook for another 5 minutes. This last step can be done at the last minute, when everything else you’re making is ready.

These potatoes are my contribution to this weeks ARF/5-a-Day Tuesdays over at Sweetnicks.

My love of all things Ina is no secret to those who know me well. I have learned much about cooking from the Barefoot Contessa, and her cookbooks remain my most-often referenced.

For Christmas, my dear sister-in-law, who shares my love of the Contessa, gave me Barefoot in Paris. The reason I haven’t posted about it yet is because I believe in getting to know a cookbook before I commit to a full-blown evening with it. Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to take things slowly, reading the book through over a cup of coffee once or twice, getting a feel for what it has to offer, before I settle on my first recipe.

As the weather has been truly stew-worthy and as I thought my foray into French cuisine should start with something simple and classic, I began with Beef Bourguignon. Not the most photogenic dish, mind you, but don’t be fooled by its humble appearance. This stew is well worth the time you must wait for it to come to full flavor and the price of the wine and brandy you must put up to coax the homely beef, carrots, and onions into saucy decadence.

One of the things I most like about the dish is its versatility. The first night we ate it over garlic-rubbed bread, as the Contessa instructs. But rice and egg noodles also made good accompaniments, and thinned with some beef broth, it makes an excellent soup. The best thing about it, though, is that I made it on a Monday and it provided at least 3 other meals for us throughout the week (that’s 8 servings altogether), and I thought it was even better each time I ate it again, which doesn’t usually happen with me and leftovers. For a busy, cold week, this beef stew was my perfect match. Definitely worth the wait.

Beef Bourguignon
adapted from Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris (thanks, Hannah!)

Olive oil
1/2 pound bacon, diced
2 1/2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound carrots, sliced thickly on the bias
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup brandy
1 bottle dry red wine
1 14 1/2-ounce can beef broth
1 T. tomato paste
1 T. chopped fresh rosemary (or thyme or sage)
3 T. butter
3 T. flour

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Heat a teaspoon or 2 of olive oil in the biggest skillet (with a lid) you’ve got or in a Dutch oven.  Brown the bacon until it’s done, but not crispy. Remove the bacon, but leave the fat; return to medium-high heat. Add the cubes of beef in batches, making sure not to overcrowd the pan. Turn the pieces quickly to brown the meat on all sides; remove to the plate with the bacon.

When all the meat is seared, add the carrots and onions to the pan and cook for about 12-15 minutes, until the onions are golden brown. Add the garlic, and cook for another few minutes. Season with plenty of Kosher salt and cracked pepper. Now comes the fun part. Have the half cup of brandy and a match or lighter. Add the brandy, and light it on fire, standing away from the stove. It will burn off in less than a minute, but it’s fun to watch!

Stir in the beef and bacon pieces, and pour in the wine. Stir and season with salt and pepper. Add the beef broth; make sure that the meat is sufficiently covered. Stir in the tomato paste and rosemary. Bring the mixture to a boil, then pop it into the oven to cook for about an hour.

Remove the pan from the oven and return to the stove top. Mash the butter and flour into a paste, and stir into the stew to thicken. Bring it to a boil; reduce and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. To serve, layer thick slices of crusty bread, rubbed with cut garlic, into bowls; ladle the stew on top.

Note: Ina’s recipe calls for small frozen onions and sauteed mushrooms, to be added after the stew has been cooked in the oven. I was too hungry to slice and cook mushrooms by the time the stew was ready, but I’m sure they would make a nice addition. In my opinion, the stew is onion-y enough, so I left out the frozen ones altogether.

I know I shouldn’t complain about the cold. I live in southern Louisiana for crying out loud. But I tell you, when we bought our house (in July when it was 100 degrees), we didn’t really think to check the insulation or ask about the efficiency of the heating system. Boy do I wish we had. The conventional foundation means we’re up off the ground (cold), and the 1920s windows and doors are not quite as tightly sealed as they were, say, 80 years ago (drafty and cold). Plus, it’s humid, which makes the cold colder.

And I, friends, am not a cold weather kind of girl.

The cold affects my culinary senses one of two ways: either I crave standing in front of the hot stove making something hearty and satisfying or I simply want to stay in bed, food or not (it’s really the only warm place in our house besides in front of the stove).

Fortunately for David, I’m coming out of the stay-in-bed-with-my-books-and-computer slump and working towards spending as much time in front of the stove as possible.

This soup is an old standby, and it hits the hot spot on both counts: spice and temperature. The soup is rich and garlicky, thick with the tomato puree and chunky because of the chopped ones. After a big bowl of this (and the time I spend cooking it) I sometimes can even take my coat off and not be freezing.

But only sometimes.

Spicy Tomato Soup

4 slices bacon
1 yellow onion, chopped
6-8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 16-ounce can chopped tomatoes
1-2 t. Kosher salt
2 cups chicken stock or canned broth
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
Cracked black pepper
Half and half or heavy cream (optional)

Cook the bacon in a large pot until brown and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Cook the onion in the bacon fat over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until just tender. Add the garlic, and cook for another 5-8 minutes, until both are very soft and the garlic is beginning to turn golden. Salt and pepper well. (I don’t measure my salt, but with soup, I’ve found that if you season as you go, instead of all at once at the very end, you’ll end up with a nicely enhanced flavor, rather than a salty soup.) Stir in the crushed tomatoes, then add the chopped ones and their liquid. Add the broth, and season again. Bring the soup to a simmer,then reduce the heat and add the cayenne. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. The soup is ready to serve at this point, but I usually leave mine on the stove on low heat for a while, to let the flavors mingle a little longer. When ready to serve, spoon into bowls and top with a few drops of half and half or cream and a crumble of bacon. Focaccia bread makes an excellent vehicle for dipping, if you’re so inclined. This soup could easily be vegetarian: substitute olive oil or butter for the bacon fat and vegetable broth for the chicken stock.
This recipe is my submission to this week’s ARF Tuesdays over at Sweetnicks.

Apologies for my long absence–life has taken over.We have managed to eat here and there in the midst of that life, so this week I hope to share more of the busy-life dinners that have become so much a part of our routine. One of the ways I’m surviving this tornado of grading papers, writing, reading, discussing, tutoring, planning, committee-sitting, and teaching is by spending a little time in the kitchen to prepare for (at least) two meals at a time. This focaccia recipe doubles as a homemade pizza crust, and the dough is freezable. If I make two batches at once, then I have two nights of pizza and two nights of sandwiches (look for it to appear on Thursday or Friday as part of the cheese sandwich protest movement), plus some leftover to accompany soup or salad.

Having dinner on the table every night for me is not a matter of culinary brillance but of efficient time management: this bread recipe is one of my secrets. For this pizza, I topped it with glorious Meyer lemons, which the lovelies Rorie and Darla have both waxed poetic about in recent weeks (and if you are unfamiliar with these huge, thin-skinned, most flavorful of lemons, please go and read their posts about them), garlic, jalapeno peppers, and plenty of good olive oil. The topping sings with a zippy tart spice that suits the smooth, mild focaccia in perfect pizza harmony.

And, if you’re lucky, you’ll have a piece or two leftover to grab for lunch the next day.

Basic Foccacia Bread/Pizza Dough

1 pkg. yeast
1 t. sugar
2 cups very warm water (like for a bath)
5 cups flour (I use 3 cups all-purpose and 2 cups bread flour)
2 t. Kosher salt, plus more to sprinkle on top
2 T. olive oil, plus more for the top

In the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, stir the yeast, water, and sugar together. Let the mixture stand for about 5 minutes; it should be fizzy on top. Add the flour, salt, and olive oil. Knead with the dough hook for several minutes. The dough should come together in a ball and start trying to climb out of the bowl. Let it knead like this for a few more minutes. Knead with your hands for a minute more, working out any knots of flour. (A trick here: coat your hands with olive oil.) The dough should feel smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, cover, and let it rise in a warm place (I put it in my pantry) for at least an hour. At this point, you have a few options: get it ready to bake, refrigerate if you’re planning to use within a few days, or freeze it for a later use.

To bake as focaccia: divide the dough in half and form into rounds. Place on cookie sheets and allow to rest for about 15 minutes, covered. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Dimple the dough with your fingers, drizzle olive oil on top, and spinkle with Kosher salt (and chopped rosemary if you so desire). Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the top is just beginning to turn golden.

For the Meyer Lemon Pizza:

2 Meyer lemons, thinly sliced and seeds removed
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sprigs rosemary, minced
Zest of one lemon
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the lemon slices. Cook for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally until the rinds begin to soften. Add the pepper slices and garlic, and cook for 10 minutes more, or until the garlic and pepper are very soft. Stir frequently to make sure the garlic doesn’t brown.

Spread one half of the dough thinly over a cookie sheet, stretching it with your hands. You may have to be forceful, but try not to tear it or leave any holes. Drizzle the dough with olive oil, salt, the crushed garlic, lemon zest, and minced rosemary. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, and spread the lemon topping evenly over the dough. Grate Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup?) evenly over the pizza. Bake for 10 minutes more.

Refrigerate the other half of the dough, freeze it, or bake it as bread to have the rest of the week.

Pasta is such a staple around here that it’s hard for me to remember whether I’ve shared certain pasta recipes or not. Several are good solid stand-by dishes–I’ve made them so often no recipe is necessary, and I know they will turn out to our liking.

This sausage pasta is one such dish. But before I convince you of how good it is, I have to tell you something about it. Are you ready? Here comes my confession:

The original recipe for this pasta comes from Rachael Ray (gasp!)

Are you still with me? Okay, so the food community seems to love Rachael or hate her (and my southern aunts are among the hate crowd), but I am completely ambivalent. Do I like some of her cooking ideas? Yes. Do I dislike some of her cooking ideas? Yes. Do I think she’s a culinary genius? No. But I don’t remember her ever claiming to be one.

In all fairness to the 30-minute meal queen, I picked up several useful tips from watching her show when I was a new wife, working a stressful full-time job, and trying to learn to cook edible meals. This pasta dish comes from that phase of my life, and I still really like it. For those of you who count yourselves among the Rachael-loathing readers, I’ll try to write my recipe instructions in such a way that could not possibly come across as obnoxious, and I’ll try to leave out measurements like “a big glug.” But I must give credit where it’s due. Love Rachael Ray? Hate Rachael Ray? I really don’t care. But this pasta is good, fast, and super easy. So there.

The Anisette or Pernod is probably not something you normally have on hand, but I can find it pretty cheap, so I just keep a bottle just for this dish. The flavor enhances the sweet licorice of the fennel in a way I can’t imagine anything else would. Oh, and if you’ve never cooked with fennel, please try it. I don’t much like it raw–too bitter–but it has a lovely sweetness when cooked that I find fresh and unique. It’s actually fennel month over at A Veggie Venture, so if you’re in the mood to try this feather-topped vegetable, head over there for Alanna’s round-up of fennel recipes. And, of course, if you’d prefer a slower, less committed introduction, this pasta might be just the thing to win you over. It did me.

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As regular readers of this site will know, I am not a person who counts carbs. I have been known to count calories if I want to lose weight, but I simply can’t give up bread or pasta. I tried Atkins for about a week when it first became popular, but I was miserable. I thought I would never want to see another scrambled egg or piece of bacon again.

But I have had friends who were careful about their carbohydrate intake. Our friends in Jackson, Laura and Randy, were on the South Beach diet for a while, and we dined with them often. Through learning to cook low-carb for them, I also learned that it’s important to have a variety of meals in my culinary arsenal. This frittata is both low-carb and gluten free, so if ever I have friends coming for dinner who fall into either of those categories, I at least have one option.

And, if they’re coming for Sunday brunch? Even better. This frittata is quintessential brunch food: it’s fast, easy, goes well with both coffee and juice, and the possibilities are endless. Put another way, you could throw in the kitchen sink, and a frittata would take it.

Well, okay, maybe not. But it soaked up my almost-expired goat cheese and quickly ripening green tomatoes with gusto. I used rosemary to add an herbal kick, but basil would provide a better, milder flavor; the rosemary was a little overpowering for my taste. Red tomatoes might work fine too, but the green ones are not as juicy, so there’s less chance that the frittata will be runny. Although tomato season is still a few months away, a farmer at our market grows them in a greenhouse. The flavor is definitely not the same as a tart green tomato at the height of summer; to minimize the difference, I salted the tomatoes and let them sit for a bit before tossing them in to the skillet. The salt also seems to absorb some of the tomatoes moisture, again reducing the possibility for a runny frittata.

Going low-carb? Cooking gluten-free? Just want a light, bright dish for brunch or lunch? Frittatas are the way to go. Here’s how I made this one, but the method is an open palate. If you try the kitchen sink, please, by all means, let me know how it turns out.

Green Tomato, Garlic, and Goat Cheese Frittata

1 large or 2 medium green tomatoes
Olive oil and butter
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 ounces goat cheese, or more to taste
Chopped rosemary (I used too much, but if you like the flavor, use it sparingly.)
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

Preheat the broiler. Slice 4 thin slices from the tomato; salt, and set aside. Chop the remaining tomato, and salt it too. Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a broiler-proof skillet with a small pat of butter over medium heat. Add the garlic slices and saute until fragrant, about a minute or two. Add the chopped tomatoes, stirring to coat them with the garlic and oil. Cook until the tomatoes are very soft; salt and pepper. Meanwhile, beat the eggs and milk together; season them with salt and pepper too. Pour evenly over the tomatoes. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and crumble the goat cheese on top of the eggs. Cook the eggs slowly, but without stirring. When the top is just beginning to set, lay the tomato slices on top, and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Place the whole skillet under the broiler to finish. Broil for a minute or two, or until the top is golden brown. Slice into wedges to serve. Serves 4-6.

This recipe is my contribution to Sweetnicks’ weekly event, Antioxidant Rich Tuesdays.

Noodles are clearly a staple around my house. Experimenting with pasta is one of the earliest ways I learned to make dinner both fast and good, and my love of the noodle is one of the reasons I could never join the low-carb craze. I like my noodles saucy or plain, thick or thin, hot or cold–in truth, it would be difficult for me to think of a noodle dish I don’t like. So when Amy announced that noodles were to be the theme of this month’s Is My Blog Burning event, I wondered how I would choose just one pasta dish to contribute.

This fettucine is certainly not the fanciest of pastas, but it is one of my favorites to fix. If you toss it properly, each bite is packed with a bit of tart tomato, creamy avocado, and crispy bacon, accented now and again with the fresh clean taste of cilantro, the crunch of a green onion, or the sweet mildness of a pine nut. With fresh ingredients and minimal prep work, this pasta dish is, in my estimation, the perfect quick, light supper. We have eaten it often at the end of a long school day or on a Sunday evening when I didn’t quite feel like cooking. The recipe is also highly adaptable: any nut would do in the place of the pine nuts (or none at all), and more vegetables would probably also work nicely in the mix (red bell pepper comes to mind).

Avocado and Sun-dried Tomato Fettucine

based on a recipe from Intercourses by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced (the dehydrated ones, not packed in oil)
1 pound fettucine
5 slices bacon
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 avocados
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in 2 cups boiling water for about 5 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain; setting aside the tomatoes and reserving the soaking water. Pour the water into a saucepan, return to a boil, and add the fettucine (you may need to add water to make sure the noodles are covered). Cook the pasta until it’s firm to the bite, but not mushy. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a small skillet. Remove the bacon slices when they’re cooked through and set aside to cool. Drain off the grease from the skillet, and toast the pine nuts until golden brown. Dice the avocados and sprinkle lightly with Kosher salt. Set one aside for topping. In a large bowl, combine half of the tomatoes, the pine nuts, green onions, one of the avocados, and the cilantro. When the pasta is done, toss it immediately with the avocado mixture. Drizzle the whole dish with the vinegar, olive oil, and lime juice. Toss again. Serve topped with the crumbled bacon and the reserved avocado and tomatoes. Serves 4 for dinner.

Tagged with: IMBB # 22 + Noodle

I am probably in grave danger of being called in by the veggie police for blasphemy. After all they do for me–feed my body the nutrients it needs, liven up my salads, play a second fiddle to the main courses–and all I do is talk about how I need to dress them up in order to eat them. Why do I feel this way about vegetables? Well, I’ve been giving that some thought. I really don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve had bad experiences with canned or frozen ones that scarred me. Maybe I’m just not familiar enough with how to prepare them in a way that makes them taste good instead of bad to me. Whatever the reason, I’m trying to conquer my dislike of vegetables, one recipe at a time, so when I saw this soup recipe over at The Gracious Bowl, I knew I had to give it a try.

If you like soup and you haven’t visited Adrienne and Margaret’s blog, you should check it out. I have long been a fan of the comforting and nourishing powers of soup, so I check their site often for new ideas and recipes. They posted this recipe last week, and I immediately wanted to try it. We love Italian sausage, and since David loves beans of all sorts (and I, sadly, do not), I’m always trying to think of new ways to fix them where we might both be happy. This soup really did the trick. It is thick and hearty and utterly satisfying. The sausage and beans give it enough substance to make it filling, and the loads of vegetables makes it extra good for you. I simplified the original recipe just a tad–I eliminated the bacon and cooked the sausage, onions, garlic, and carrots all together before adding the rest of the ingredients. Also, Margaret included the rinds of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, which sounds like a lovely addition–I just didn’t have any. The recipe was also perfect for my new schedule–I threw everything together in the morning before class, and then David put it on to simmer a couple of hours before I got home.

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