Pasta With White Sausage Sauce...how so few can give so much!

We had this super simple, light yet really satisfying pasta the other night that really drives home the point that a few well placed ingredients can combine to produce something really special. I saw it on Mark Bittman's bittenblog at the NYT site. It defines his whole minimalsit ethos. I added some baby spinach to the recipe because it seemed it needed a little extra lift, and it worked perfectly. Arugula would also give it a nice peppery lift. If you ever want to make something quick that I promise the whole family will get with, this is it!

Sorry about the lame-ass photo. I was so hungry that night I just kind of dumped and shot!
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Pasta With White Sausage Sauce
adapted from Mark Bittman/ The New York Times
yield 4 servings
time 20 minutes

Mark Bittman's summary: "You can make this sauce stronger or more complex by adding a touch of minced garlic to the butter as it melts, or by using wine -- especially red wine -- as the liquid." (I used red wine and it was perfect! I was worried it might be too "winey", but it combined beautifully. -bb)

ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage (if using link sausage, remove it from the casing)
1/2 cup water, white wine or red wine
1 pound cut pasta like ziti
2 cups fresh baby spinach, washed and drained
1/2 cup or more freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

method:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta.

2. Put the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. As it melts, crumble the sausage meat into it, making the bits quite small, 1/2 inch or less. Add the liquid, and adjust the heat so that the mixture simmers gently.

3. Cook the pasta until it is tender but not at all mushy. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.

4. Drain the pasta, and dress with the sauce, adding a little of the reserved cooking liquid if necessary. Toss with spinach, salt, pepper and Parmesan, and serve. Variations: There are a couple of ways you can make this sauce stronger or more complex. A touch of minced garlic added to the butter as it melts helps a lot. A handful of parsley thrown in at the last minute contributes freshness and color. Another interesting twist is to use wine — especially red wine — as the liquid. The wine's astringency perfectly offsets the sweet richness of butter and meat.

Cook's note: Bittman called for ziti pasta. I would use regular penne rigate or farfalle instead the next time. The ziti's smooth surface did nothing to hold the light sauce.

Your next dinner party: part 3- Time for dessert!

So, are you still hungry? Everyone pleasure centers are probably screaming for mercy, but this is America you guys. More is better, right? Two superlative inducing courses down, one super seasonal dessert left. Plus you did put that bottle of Moscato d'Asti in the fridge to chill didn't you? Good, I knew you would.
So how to finish to make sure that everyone has a meal they'll never forget (as if the memory of that lamb isn't burned permanently into their cerebellums)? Especially when bellies may be busting around the table. Maybe taking it down a notch with something light and fresh is the deal. Well, assuming you have access to the bushels of fresh peaches flooding markets everywhere this time of year, and are grabbing the last of the seasons fresh blueberries, then you are good to go with maybe the easiest (you can even make this while everyone is digesting all that lamb), best dessert you'll have this summer, and I guarantee you'll pull it out again and again. At the market last week found the most incredible, luscious white peaches that were perfect for this. The peaches and blueberries, lightly coated with the balsamic glaze, just burst in your mouth with bright, sweet flavor. This was another epicurious find that with a glass of that most addictive of Italian dessert wines, Moscato d'Asti from Italy's Piedmont region, is almost too good. And in case your already thinking "More wine? OMG!" then moscato is the perfect choice. Lightly fizzy, low in alcohol (usually just 5%), with a delicate sweet, spicy, floral character, if you haven't ever tried one, YOU MUST! If you have, then I know you're already nodding your heads in agreement. As far as producers of this magical elixir to look for, I've had almost all of them, and there usually isn't a huge difference. It seems, remarkably, that they're all good!

So there it is. The perfect dinner party, in order and ready to. The only question: whose lucky enough to be on your invite list?!
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Balsamic Blueberries and Peaches
adapted from epicurious

ingredients:
3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 cups blueberries (about 1 lb)
1 lb peaches or nectarines, sliced
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (optional)

method:
Boil 3 tablespoons sugar with vinegar, and 1 cup blueberries in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring, 1 minute. Remove from heat. Combine remaining 2 cups blueberries with peach slices in a large bowl. Toss with hot blueberry syrup and black pepper, then add sugar to taste. Let stand, tossing occasionally, 30 minutes.
*Cooks note: Vary sugar depending how sweet and ripe your fruit is.
Makes 4 servings.

Seasonal success: Farfalle w/ zucchini and yogurt sauce

Are you like me where you're constantly tearing out new recipes out of various cooking mags you drag home with the best of intentions to make them right away? Then weeks...months?...later find this drawer or file folder stuffed with all this temptation? Yeah, me too. But last Monday, after a several hour drive home from our road trip escape and days of meals eaten out, I was in a home-cooked-meal frame of mind but didn't want to hassle with anything too involved. Plus, the cupboards were pretty bare, so I pulled out my overstuffed file folder to see if there might be something quick, easy, and hopefully pasta centric.

Turns out that a long time ago, maybe a year or two, I had torn this recipe out Food and Wine Magazine that seemed kind of crazy, but they swore it was delicious (we've all read that before, haven't we? Sometimes it is just that...crazy!). It was made with farfalle pasta with shredded zucchini that you boil with the pasta and a yogurt based sauce, which sounded strange but after reading through the recipe, sounded intriguingly delicious. So I took a quick trip to the store, and within 30 minutes we were sitting down to an awesome vegetarian (and you know how important that is to me...or not), surprisingly light, very seasonal pasta that I would make again in a heartbeat. It would make a great first course before a grilled spring lamb dinner, but by itself it rocked it. Plus the leftovers for lunch yesterday were pretty fab, too. The only change I made to the original recipe was adding the lemon juice, which I felt added a needed citrus zip and worked perfectly.

For a perfect wine match, throw a bottle or two of a crisp, dry Austrian Gruner-Veltliner or a nice, all-stainless Sauvignon Blanc and you'll be set!
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Farfalle with Yogurt and Zucchini
adapted from Food and Wine Magazine

total time: 25 min.
serves: 4 to 6
From Food and Wine: "One of the best (and simplest) pasta dishes from this year’s crop of cookbook authors comes from Johanne Killeen and George Germon, the chefs and owners of Al Forno in Providence, Rhode Island, and the authors of On Top of Spaghetti. This recipe calls for quickly boiling shredded zucchini in the same pot as the pasta, then tossing everything together in a sauce made with yogurt instead of cream. Yogurt may seem strange in a pasta sauce, but the result is brilliant."

ingredients:
1 pound farfalle
4 medium zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds), coarsely shredded
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving
1 tablespoon (or more, to taste) fresh squeezed lemon juice
Freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

method:
1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the farfalle until al dente; about 1 minute before the farfalle is done, add the shredded zucchini to the pot. Drain the farfalle and zucchini, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.

2. Meanwhile, in a large, deep skillet, melt the butter. Remove from the heat. Stir in the Greek yogurt and the 1 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and season the yogurt sauce with lemon juice, freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.

3. Add the farfalle, zucchini and reserved pasta water to the saucepan and cook over low heat, tossing, until the sauce coats the pasta; transfer to warmed bowls and serve with the extra cheese.

Deliver me from desperation!

We've all been there. Coming home after work, dragging a little, having no idea what's for dinner. Knowing you either come up with something or it'll turn into one of those "breakfast for dinner" nights. Last night was a perfect case in point. I open the fridge....stare....stare some more...hoping inspiration is hidden in the chilly confines, maybe behind the jar of mayo. And then it hits! I open the meat drawer, where ironically all my veggies tend to hide, and there is that bag of earthy goodness I picked up a week ago at the farmer's market, about a pound and a half of porcini and morel mushrooms. Then the mind starts clicking. I look 36" above that and grab that hunk of pancetta out of the freezer, a stick of butter, a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano....getting closer now....is it still there? Yes! A serviceable bunch of parsley. Oh, and there's that tub of Crane Bros. mascarpone...sure, why not. I'm home free now. Some garlic, olive oil, a box of DeCecco fusilli out of the cupboard, S&P, and here ya have it, a delicious dinner in about 20 minutes. Hunger averted, satisfaction delivered!
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Wild Mushroom and Pancetta Pasta

ingredients
1.5# wild mushrooms sliced
5 oz pancetta diced
2-3 tbls. Olive oil
5 cloves garlic peeled and lightly crushed
1/3 cup Italian parsley
2 tbls. Butter
2-3 tbls. Mascarpone
1# fusilli or any other favorite pasta
Salt & fresh ground pepper
Parmigiano-Reggiano for passing

Heat large pot of water to boil for pasta. Pour olive oil into large sauté pan. Heat up over medium heat and add crushed garlic cloves. Infuse oil until cloves turn golden brown. Remove cloves and discard. Add diced pancetta and cook until crisp. Remove pancetta from pan, leaving oil and "bacon juice", add butter and melt. Add pasta to water and cook until done. Add mushrooms, sprinkle with salt, and sauté about 10 minutes or until soft. Add pancetta back to mushrooms. Stir in mascarpone. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add mushroom/pancetta mix and parsley to pasta, mix together with salt and pepper to taste and dig in! Pass parma for sprinkling.