Easy Roasted Potatoes and Sausages.

This meal is as easy as 1, 2, 3... though there are some secrets. 
To have the crunchy and attractive potatoes boil them for about 5 minutes, it will remove the excess of starch from the potato cubes and seal the potato surface. The potatoes will come out with a  crunchy crust and they will be really soft and tender inside. Don't use ready potato herbs mixes: the only herbs you need are rosemary and a bay leaf... Serve the dish with a very simple salad, don't overdo with the dressing as well, just some good olive oil.... Try it to believe it!!!


 

INGREDIENTS: 
Servings: 2

4 fresh sausages
4-6 potatoes
2-3 sprigs of rosemary
1-2 bay leaves
salt
EVO oil

1. Peel potatoes and cut them in equal cubes.
2. Wash them well to remove the starch.
3. In a saucepan cover potato cubes with cold water, bring water to boiling and boil potatoes for 5 minutes. Drain them well.

4. Pour some oil in a roasting pan  and put the potatoes inside, salt them and distribute rosemary over, add bay leaves cut in 2-3 parts.

5. Peel the sausages and cut them into 3 pieces. Put them over the potatoes.
6. Cook the dish in a preheated oven at 220C for 20 minute, then turn the sausages over and cook for about 10-15 minutes more.

7. Remove the sausages from the pan and turn the potatoes over, brown potatoes for 10 minutes more till they are nice and golden.

8. Serve the potato cubes mixed with the sausage pieces and some rockets salad aside.      

 ENJOY !!!

Broccoli Soup with Sausage Crisps

Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables. And I like it cooked any style possible...
You can make a main dish or a side dish out of it, but today we prepare a soup.
Vegetarians may try it with some fried tofu instead of the sausage, the recipe of the fried tofu is HERE.



INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 4

700-800g broccoli (2 medium ones)
1-2 medium potatoes
1 small onion
1-2 sausages
EVO oil
salt

1. Peel potatoes and cut them into cubes 2x2cm.
Note: If you like your soup thick, use 2 potatoes.
2. Cut the broccoli into florets.
3. Put potatoes and broccoli into a pan and pour the water just enough to cover the vegetables. Add some salt.
4. Cook the vegetables till they are soft enough to be smashed by a fork.
5. Keep the vegetables aside.

6. Chop onion finely.

7. Pour some EVO oil into a frying pan, crumble the sausage into small bits and add chopped onion. Cook for about 5 minutes till it's nice and golden.

 8. Using a blender, mash broccoli and potatoes together with the water they were cooked in.
9. Mix the pureed soup with the sausage and onion, keeping some of the sausage aside. 

10. Serve the soup with some sausage crisps as a decoration.
Note: You may add some EVO oil when serve it without mixing it with the soup.  

ENJOY !!!

    


 

RAGU alla Bolognese - Italian Meat and Tomato Sauce

One of the most famous Italian sauces is RAGU. It's also known as Ragu alla Bolognese or sometimes even just Bolognese (abroad and not in Italy).
In Italy every dish has it's own regional origin, Ragu comes from the Italian region called Emilia-Romagna with it's main city - Bologna, from which Ragu takes it's name: Ragu alla Bolognese.
Ragu is a meat-base sauce with the add of tomato and not vice versa as it's cooked in other countries. So there's more meat then tomato in this sauce. The other difference is that the original Ragu is simmered for many hours and believe me you will feel the difference.... They used to cook Ragu on a wood stove even for 6 hours! 
Ragu traditionally dresses the wide long formats of pasta as Tagliatelle, Fettuccine, Pappardelle. It is also very popular as an ingredient of Lasagna. Sometimes you may find the short pasta like Rigatoni, Penne or Paccheri (on the photo) with Ragu. And as a very special way of using ragu is to stuff the big formats of pasta like Lumaconi (snails) and cook them in the oven with mozzarella and Parmigiano cheese....
Two more things to let you know:
1. Some people think that Ragu is a kind of meat stew... it's not! It's a sauce.
2. Ragu is never served with Spaghetti in Italy as the meat pieces will not stick to this kind of pasta. 
Be patient with this sauce and the taste will be rewarding!!!
  
 
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 1.8-2l of sauce
 
800-900g minced mixed meat (beef-pork)
4 sausages (400g)
700ml tomato puree
2 carrots
1 big onion
2 celery stalks
1 bay leaf
1 rosemary sprig
200ml red wine
veg. stock cube 
salt
pinch of sugar 
100ml EVO oil

The quantity I prepare is very generous, but as this sauce is very laborious to prepare I prefer to cook a bit more and then store it...

Note: Before you start cooking, as for the pan, use a thick bottom one, as the cooking process is long and we don't want the sauce to stick to the bottom of the pan....
  

1. Chop onion and celery finely.
2. Grate the carrot. Or as an option you may chop everything with an electric chopper.
3. Pour some EVO oil into a big sauce pan and add carrots, onion, celery and simmer till the vegetables are golden brown.

 4. Peel the sausage and break it into tiny pieces, add it to the meat that you put in a bowl and mix well.
5. Add the minced meat to the veges, stir vigorously to have a homogeneous mixture.

6. Splash with some red wine and let the alcohol evaporate, smell it to feel if there's still some alcohol.

7. Cook till the meat will become lighter in colour, for about 15 minutes at a medium heat.
8. Prepare vegetable broth (use a stock cube).  

7. Add tomato puree and half a glass of vegetable broth to the meat mix and stir. Add a pinch of sugar together with tomato puree to neutralize the acidity of tomato.
8. Add a bay leaf, rosemary sprig and vegetable stock.

 9. Cover the sauce with a lid and cook at a low heat stirring from time to time (every 10-15 minutes). When you notice that the sauce becomes too thick, add half a glass of broth (better unsalted veg. broth) and stir.

10. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and try if you feel the sauce needs more.
11. From the moment you added tomato puree, cook for at least 2 hours, constantly stirring and adding broth to dilute.
Note: I usually cook this sauce for 2-3 hours but traditionally it was cooked for 6-8 hours.

Note: The secrets of this sauce are:
- using mixed mince,
- stirring constantly, about every 10 minutes,
- cooking at a low heat,
- adding some water or better vegetable broth (unsalted) when needed,
- cooking from two to three hours. 

12.  When the sauce is ready it will have a thick and granular consistency, reddish brown colour and a rich flavour that will fill in the whole your house....

Note: You may divide the sauce into portions and freeze them, then you will have a ready sauce when you need it! 
   
  
 

Sausage with Tomato Sauce

Typical winter sauce for winter meals... and a perfect companion for Polenta. You will find the recipe of polenta HERE. 
If you have a nice loaf of fresh bread, be sure you will finish it all with this wonderful dish, dipping the bread slices into the thick tomato sauce...
 
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 3

6 sausages
1/2 onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
600 ml tomato purèe
salt 
sugar 
EVO oil

1. Chop the vegetables and cook them in a frying pan with some olive oil.
 

2. Cut the skin of the sausages and peel it out.
3. Add the sausages to the vegetables and cook them together for a couple of minutes.

4. Add tomato purèe to the pan with the sausages. Add about a third of a glass of water to the sauce. It will let it cook for longer and the sauce will reach it's full taste.
5. Add a pinch of sugar to the sauce.
Note: In order to balance the acidity of tomato you need to add some sugar to the sauce. Every brand of tomato purèe will need different amount of sugar.
6. Add some salt to the sauce.
7. Keep cooking at a low heat for about 20 minutes. 
If the sauce gets too dry add a splash of water.

I served Sausages and Tomato sauce with polenta (corn flour porridge), you can find the recipe HERE.

Pumpkin - Radicchio - Sausage Risotto

Cooking Risotto is really simple... but...only if you know some secrets! I don't mind revealing them...  This recipe is very rich as we use many different ingredients. You may adjust it a bit if you are cooking for someone who's vegetarian, just take away the sausage. There are two opposite tastes in this dish: sweetness from pumpkin and bitterness from Radicchio salad, but they perfectly accomplish each other. Follow the sequence as I specified and you will have a fully balanced taste...
 
INGREDIENTS :
Servings: 2

160g rice
2 sausages
250-300g pumpkin
radicchio (red chicory) salad
1/2 small onion 
50ml white wine
veg stock
600ml water
EVO oil 
Parmigiano cheese

1. Chop onion finely and brown it with some EVO oil in a frying pan. 
2. Add fresh sausages that you broke into small pieces and cook for a couple of minutes.

3. Cut pumpkin into medium cubes and add it to the sausage, mix well.
4. Add rice, mix well and let the rice absorb the oil and liquids of the sausage mix.
5. Splash with some white wine and let the alcohol evaporate.

6. Add about a glass of hot water and a 1/2 of vegetable stock. It's better to add water gradually while cooking risotto, it permits the starch to come out of the rice grains and so risotto will result in being creamier.
7. Keep cooking, stirring well and adding more water when needed. 

8. After about 15 minute the rice will be almost ready. So chop Radicchio salad leaves into fine stripes and add them to the rice. Stir well.
9. Cook for 3-5 more minutes. 

10. Switch the heat and add a hand-full of grated Parmigiano cheese. 
Note: This is called "mantecatura" in Italian, that means mixing and seasoning all together. When you add Parmigiano to your risotto do it after you switch off the heat, as if you keep the heat on, the cheese will melt and become filamentary. and it will spoil the creaminess of the dish.  

Serve with some additional Parmigiano on top. Buon Appetito!!!