Sunday Jan 9, 2011 Recipe #1

Not impressed! I was bummed at the outcome of the recipe that I tried this past Sunday. Not sure if it was me or the recipe. But bland bland bland. On paper, the recipe seems YUM-O but eating it was YUCK-O. The recipe I made was out of one of my Rachael Ray cook books. Called "Just in Time." It features recipes that are 15, 30, and 60 minute meals.
The recipe:

Green with Envy Orecchiette and Red Wine Braised Sausages

Directions

Orecchiette means little ears and the ears will be burning over this recipe - tasty and supper good for you. The friends and family you make it for will be green with envy to be able to make something so delicious!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds - 8 short links or 4 large, hot or sweet Italian sausages
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Salt
• 1 pound orecchiette pasta
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts
• 1 package or bunch chives, coarsely chopped or torn by hand
• 2 cloves garlic, popped from skin, 1 clove minced, divided
• 12 stems tarragon, 1 package or small bunch, leaves stripped from stems
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more to pass at table
• 1 bunch green Swiss chard, stems removed and roughly chopped
• A little freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

Place sausages in a skillet and add wine and 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil to the pan. Place pan over medium-high heat and let the wine reduce and evaporate, 15 to 18 minutes. Eventually, the casings will crisp up and the wine and oil will glaze the casings. When cooking the sausages be sure to cook thoroughly. Some of the sausages were slightly pink. But this part was awesomely good.

Place a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Salt water and cook to al dente. Heads up: you will need 1 1/2 cups, a couple of ladles, starchy cooking water just before you drain the orecchiette.

Toast hazelnuts 5 minutes over medium-low heat in a small skillet. Cool a few minutes. (I am not a fan of nuts in the pasta so I left this out.)

Place the chives, garlic, tarragon, salt and pepper and nuts into food processor and turn it on. Stream in about 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and process the ingredients into a smooth but thick sauce. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and stir in the cheese. The color is stronger if you stir rather than process the cheese into the sauce. (This part confused me. When I processed all the herbs to make the sauce it seemed like it wasn't enough and was too thick, but in the end it was fine. When i added the cheese it was almost like a big ball of cheese and pesto. When I added the starchy water from the noodles it thinned out to a nice creamy sauce.)

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium high to high heat. Add greens, minced garlic and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Sear greens, tossing them as they wilt down, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add cooking liquids to pesto in bowl then add pasta and greens and toss to coat the pasta and let the flavors absorb, 1 minute.

Serve 2 braised sausages with lots of greens alongside.



Most of the ingredients at Sprouts. I was not able to find "green Swiss Chard" This is a leafy green similar to Turnip greens or Mustard Greens. I used Mustard Greens. The greens cooked up nicely and thinking about using that as a side dish another time. I also could not find the orecchiette pasta. So i used shell pasta and it was just fine. Like I said it was bland so I added a little garlic salt and shredded Parmesan cheese and that helped a bit.

I had my husband and brother in law there as my critics: Husband was not impressed! Whenever he doesn't like something "oddly enough" during dinner he will have to get up and tend to a child or clean something up and avoid the meal. That is my indicator that he does not wish to have it EVER again. As for my brother in law... It seemed that he was OK with it. Tips from him were to try using feta cheese. That seems like a good idea as that will increase the salty taste.

Preparing myself to cook for the evening:

Well not very well! I worked that morning and got my hair done, so I was not home most of the day and by 4 o'clock I had to book it to my side of town ~Surprise (which was a 30 minute drive), get to Sprouts and try to find all the ingredients which seemed like I was lost. All of this was with my 2 girls which is rough because by late afternoon/ early evening you can imagine how "uncranky" they really are. Cooking the meal was chaotic since I was dealing with a toddler and husbands and kids and a messy kitchen. I definitely recommend starting any cooking adventure with a clear mind and clean kitchen. Things tend to go much smoother. So I feel this 1st go at my Challenge was a bust but I have to keep telling myself that it is just one recipe and there are countless ones out there that I know I can make amazing.

When telling all my family and friends about this BLOG I was so amazed with the enthusiasm Even my team at work was excited for me. This only means that I will have to use them as a critic once in a while.

Thanks everyone for reading and be sure to pass on an tips, ideas, suggestions.