Sausage and Leek Pasta, or New Experiences with Local Pork

The last couple of weeks have been intense in Forager land, with excitement happening as far away as Mexico and, of course, right here in Brooklyn.  I'm back on track on this spring day that feels like summer to tell you about a recipe that was born out of a winter day that suddenly turned into spring.  

I love spring! It offers up brief baths of sunshine in the coldest days of winter and, for a couple of weeks, plays hide and seek as well.  On one of the first beautiful spring days, I hit the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market to take advantage of the textile recycling and see what was on offer.

In poking around the booths, I found Bradley Farm , based in New Paltz, NY, with beautiful pork sausage on display.  I loaded up on onions for the Tigress Can Jam and got some late winter butternut squash and greens.  These seemed like the perfect ingredients for a last cold weather casserole, until spring came out from hiding in full force, screaming for something lighter - less squash, more leeks.

I went with a recipe from Lidia Bastianich using sausage, leeks and campanelle.  I've actually not made one of her recipes before and can't imagine why I never did.  The recipe was simple, flavorful and really beautiful.  I found tricolor vegetable radiatore at Trader Joe's that mimicked the campanelle just enough to catch the sauce and bits of sausage.  It also called for just a small amount of sausage which stretched a pricey and amazingly tasty product a long way. 

Sausage and Leek Pasta (adapted from Lidia Bastianich)

• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2/3 lb sweet Italian sausage (casings removed), crumbled
• 2 large leeks, trimmed, light green and white parts cut into 1/2-inch pieces, washed well, and drained
• 1/2 small white onion, minced
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 cups frozen young peas
• 1 cup homemade or low-salt chicken broth
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lb. campanelle or other shaped, dried pasta
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano, plus more for serving if you like

1. Heat large pot of salted water for the pasta.
2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook the sausage, breaking up the lumps, until golden, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the leeks and cook, stirring, until soft, about 8 minutes. Stir in the onion and cook for 1 minute.
4.  Add 1 Tbs. of the butter, the peas, and the broth. Heat to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, cover the skillet, and set aside; keep warm.
5. Meanwhile, cook the pasta, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot over low heat. Add the sausage and leek sauce to the pasta and toss well. Remove the pot from the heat, add the remaining 1 Tbs. butter and the grated cheese; toss well.
6. Transfer to a warmed serving platter or individual bowls. Serve immediately, with more grated cheese on the side, if you like.

March Can Jam: Alliums

This month, the ingredient for the Tigress Can Jam is Alliums! Garlic and onions count among my favorite food items, so I couldn't be more excited.  I took a chance this month and made two recipes to fill up the larder.  I could have made a hundred and may still try.  I'd love to pickle garlic and I certainly was jealous of all the can jammers out there with fresh garlic or green garlic or garlic scapes, so I'm going to keep my eyes open and will be capturing loads more alliums in jars in the near future. 

For my first trick, I started simple with loads of beautiful red onions that I picked up at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market.  The onions were so pretty that I didn't want to do much with them, but simmering them lightly in red wine vinegar (and a clove of garlic) made them even more attractive.  The onions still had a bit of crunch when they went into the jars, but had softened slightly.  I'm looking forward to using them in salads, or on barbecue sandwiches, and of course the vinegar itself will be amazing when it's all infused with great onion flavor.

My next trick was more complicated, for sure.  I decided that I wanted to do something with garlic since it ranks among my favorite foods.  I found Roasted Garlic Jelly in Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving and was immediately interested in the sweet roasted garlic, balsamic vinegar and dry white wine.  Quite possibly perfect. 

I collected my ingredients and roasted the garlic.  Checking one more time while the garlic roasted, I realized that the recipe required liquid pectin.  Doh! I only had powdered.  I did some poking around the interwebs and contemplated a substitution, but I am way too green to go against the general guidance that advised against the attempt.  And so I waited another day or two to get the pectin.  But it was well worth it.  I haven't tried the jelly out of the jar, but I stuck a finger in the leftovers coating my saucepan and it was great.  The wine and garlic melded together nicely and the color can't be beat.

Allium month definitely wins the prize (so far) for yielding the most beautiful colors and the most recipes tucked away to try sometime soon.  Once garlic-related items are in the farmers' market this spring, kettle beware!

Red Onions in Vinegar (from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving)

• 4 cups red wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic
• 10 cups sliced peeled red onions

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.
2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, add vinegar.  Smash garlic lightly and add to vinegar.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes, so that garlic can infuse the vinegar. 
3. Add onion rings.  Turn heat up to medium-high and bring to a boil.  Reduce and boil gently, covered, for 5 minutes and onions are completely heated. Discard garlic.
4. Pack hot onion rings into jars leaving generous 1/2 inch head space.  Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover onions, maintaining head space.  Remove air bubbles and add more pickling liquid if necessary to maintain 1/2 inch space in jar.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band until tight.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes and then remove jars.  Allow to cool on the counter for 24 hours.  Store.
6. Makes about 7 8-ounce jars.

Roasted Garlic Jelly (more fun from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving)

• 3 medium heads garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, divided
• 1 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar (regular is fine if you can't find white)
• 1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 pouches liquid pectin

1. Cut off tops of garlic heads.  Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over heads.  Place in foil and scrunch ends closed.  Roast for 45-60 minutes at 425F or until garlic soft.  Once cool enough to handle, separate cloves and set aside.  Discard skins.
2. In a medium stainless steel saucepan, combine roasted garlic, wine, water, white balsasmic vinegar and peppercorns.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes.  Cover, remove from heat and let steep for 15 minutes.
3. Transfer garlic mixture to dampened jelly bag or strainger lined with several layers of dampened cheese cloth set over a deep bowl.  Let drip, undisturbed, for about 30 minutes.  Measure 1 2/3 garlic juice.  If you do not get enough, add up to 1/4 cup dry white wine or water.
4. While waiting, prepare canners, jars and lids.
5. Transfer garlic juice to large deep stainless steel saucepan.  Stir in lemon juice and sugar.  Over high heat, stirring constantly, bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.  Stir in pectin.  Boil hard, stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam.
6. Quickly pour hot jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band until tight.
7. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes and remove jars.  Cool on counter for 24 hours. Store.
8. Makes about 9 4-ounce jars.

Paper Chef 50: Poached Egg on Dill, Ricotta and Onion Tartlet

I've been following the Paper Chef challenge for awhile now from afar.  Each month I thought I would give it a shot and wimped out in the end for a variety of reasons.  Not this time.

For those who aren't familiar with the challenge, this is a mini-Iron Chef with a lot more notice and more secret ingredients.  The event takes place the first full weekend of each month.  The winner of the previous month selects three ingredients at random (from a list compiled earlier that week) and then gets to add a fourth item - either a theme or an ingredient.

This month, the ingredients were dill, ricotta and honey. Our host at Prospect: The Pantry added a fourth to reflect spring and new beginnings - eggs.  I could not have been more excited.  And again, I thought about wimping out, but honestly, these are four of my favorite things ever.

I struggled with how to combine them since all of my ideas included three (usually dill in one set of three and honey in the other).  I went, with hope, to Eggs by Michel Roux which frankly should have been my first stop.  There were tons of almost-right recipes that got me dreaming.  It was his "poached egg on onion tartlet" that won the prize. 

My tweaks included using ricotta instead of cream and dill instead of thyme, as you might imagine.  There was no honey in the original recipe either, so that got added in as well.  I also had tons of lovely local onions from Philips Farms just screaming to be caramelized and spread on puff pastry. Et voila! Poached Egg on Dill, Ricotta and Onion Tartlet. 

Poached Egg on Dill, Ricotta and Onion Tartlet (inspired by Michel Roux)

• 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• freshly ground black pepper
• sprinkle ground cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh ricotta cheese
• 1 tsp milk (I used skim, but any will do)
• 1 tsp honey
• puff pastry
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 large organic egg
• 1 sprig fresh dill, roughly chopped

1. Melt butter and oil in pan over low heat.  Add sliced onions and cook until caramelized, about 20 minutes, stirring often. Set aside.
2. Cut 4-inch rounds from puff pastry (I made three since I pulled out extra, but one will suffice).
3. Drizzle olive oil on small baking sheet.  Place puff pastry round(s) on sheet and chill for about 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven (I used my convection toaster oven since I just made one) to 325F. 
5. Mix ricotta, milk and honey in small bowl and chill.
6. When pastry round(s) are ready, prick each 4-5 times with a fork.  Top with ricotta, then onions.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until pastry are golden and crispy.
8. Just before pastry is done, heat 4 inches of water in a wide pan along with 3 tbsp vinegar.  Bring to a boil.  Crack egg into separate bowl and pour into water.  Poach for about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.
9. Top pastry with egg.  Garnish with fresh dill.  Serve immediately.

 

OLS Week 4: Local Hors d'Oeuvres

This week was another hectic week that culminated in a lovely evening with girlfriends in front of the television. I was too crazed to cook, but came up with a spread of hors d'oeuvres that served us well and were about 98% local.

In order to stock up on snacks at the last minute, I explored a new farmers market - the Fulton Stall Market (that will probably be a post on its own coming shortly). I picked up an organic multigrain baguette from Bread Alone, a rainbow of carrots and the first cucumbers of the season (for me), and a locally-produced hummus (as you might expect, the chickpeas were not so local).

I pulled this together with a cheese plate of the local pecorino-style cheese that I tried last week, Yancey's aged cheddar, and a blue cheese spread which family brought down from VT on a visit the previous week. It was local to them, so it counts as local to me!

The piece de resistance (although now getting to be a regular treat on my weekly menus) was a set of crostini featuring the Valley Shepherd fresh ricotta and garlic scapes from the farmers' market sauteed in a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The wine we drank was from Portugal, and so I didn't go the full nine yards on this one, but I enjoyed the wine quite a bit and will be looking further into one of the wines in particular (I didn't drink them with reporting back in mind, but the Portuguese red table wine was probably review-worthy and certainly budget-friendly. I will make a point to get it again and see what I can do).

FreshDirect Local: Yancey's Fancy Cheddar
Brooklyn Farmers' Market: garlic scapes, radishes, pecorino cheese
Fulton Stall Farmers' Market: baguette, carrots, cucumbers, hummus
Local gift from out of town: blue cheese spread
Pantry staples: olive oil, black pepper, balsamic

Farmers' Market Week in Review

This week: Swiss chard, broccoli, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, garlic scapes, spring garlic from Phillips Farm, tri-colored radishes from Fishkill Farms, spelt from Cayuga Pure Organics and sheep's milk ricotta and a fresh pecorino-style cheese, both from Valley Shepherd Creamery.