I made myself some Italian food yesterday. My friends, who have had me over for the last several holidays, had the lady's brother get a major cancer surgery on Monday, and someone in the brother's family got sick (though not covid), probably while in the hospital, so to be safe, I'm staying home. I did drop off 3 tins of cookies on their front porch, for them to enjoy! So far, nobody in their house has gotten sick.
I had taken out 2 lbs of ground venison from the freezer, to make some Chinese food originally, but decided to make Italian, to use up a bunch of the bell peppers, and the half pound of mushrooms I had in the fridge.
I looked in a favorite Italian CB of mine -
The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian, originally because I knew he had some good sausage recipes in there, but also found two simple, but delicious, antipasti, one with red bell peppers, and the marinated mushrooms. The peppers, cut into large strips, are put in a sauté pan (in olive oil, of course!), with some sliced onion, and minced garlic, and cooked on medium, covered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Then some white wine, tomato paste, and some pepper flakes are mixed in, and cooked another 5 minutes, and that's it! The mushrooms are even easier, and were finished while the peppers were cooking! It is much like the mushrooms a la grecque, that I used to make a lot, but less complex, and no lemon juice. The seasonings are mixed up in a bowl - olive oil, white wine vinegar, parsley, garlic, and oregano, with salt and pepper to taste. The halved mushrooms are simply boiled 2 minutes, drained well, and mixed in while hot - sort of cooking the garlic a little.
The pasta dish I made was a tomato sauce, started with the sausage, which I cooked and set aside, using about 1¼ lbs of it in the sauce. I also rehydrated some eggplant and summer squash - originally meant for Chinese, but good in Italian, too! I started with sautéeing the diced onions and peppers, then the eggplant and squash, adding a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, about 1/4 c chopped anchovies, and about 2 tb fish sauce (end of the bottle). I added some thyme and marjoram (a bunch of parsley and rosemary is in the sausage), and simmered about 15 minutes, while getting the pasta ready. Added the sausage, to cook another 5 minutes or so, after the 20 oz pasta had been cooking a few minutes. After mixing the pasta in, and serving some up, I grated on a little Asiago cheese, to top it off.
Starting the simple bell pepper antipasti by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished pepper antipasti by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Mushroom antipasti, much like mushrooms a la grecque. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Starting the pasta sauce, with onions, garlic, peppers, and rehydrated eggplant and squash. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Pasta sauce, after adding a can of crushed tomatoes, and a generous amount of anchovies, chopped up, before simmering 15 minutes. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Pasta sauce, after adding about 1 1/4 lbs cooked venison Italian sausage, and cooking about 5 minutes, while cooking pasta. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished pasta, after adding 20 oz of spirals, cooked. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Italian style dinner, with a lot of leftovers! Didn't make a dent in the pasta. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Guess what I had for dessert? COOKIES! All I had really was two of those macaroons (I have been very good about staying away from those!), and one each of the snickerdoodles. And some of the Formosa Oolong tea, out of my freezer - I rarely treat myself to this.
And guess what I had for breakfast today?
PASTA!