A hearty, cream-sauce pasta with hot Italian sausage and loaded with chunky pieces of vegetables is a nice way to warm up on a cold winter night. Tagliatelle, the long, flat pasta that is usually available only fresh in your local grocers pasta section (tough to dry out the long strands, I would think), is perfect for this dish – the smooth, silky pasta complements the rougher edges of the other ingredients.

I usually find a delicious hot Italian sausage at the grocers on sale;  they freeze beautifully and are actually easier to cut up when partially thawed, so they can be cooked up ahead on the night we make the pasta.  We usually throw in some halved baby bella mushrooms along with the onions and the red peppers, but any other mushroom will work well as long as you leave the pieces fairly big – you definitely want to feel the texture of the large pieces in the sauce. I use a little cayenne pepper to add a little heat; you can certainly omit if you want a subtler sauce. Garnish with some fresh parmesan cheese, add in a nice, full-bodied French red wine, and you are set for the evening!

THE RECIPE: Tagliatelle with Hot Italian Sausage

YOU’LL NEED:

• 1 packet fresh tagliatelle pasta
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 red bell pepper, cubed into big chunks
• 1/2 cup baby bella mushrooms, halved
• 1/2 pint cream
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, plus a little extra for garnish
• 2 tbslp extra virgin olive oil
• 1tsp cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste

THE METHOD:

THE PASTA:

• Follow packet instructions, bringing the required amount of water to a boil
• Before putting pasta in the boiling water, ensure you salt the water well
• Fresh pasta cooks up pretty quickly, in a couple of mins – so time this step to ensure the pasta is done around the same time as the sauce.

THE SAUCE:

• With saucepan on medium heat, add in the oil
• If using uncooked sausage, add in the cut up pieces and fry till browned. If using pre-cooked, add when adding the veggies two steps down.
• Add onions and saute for 2 mins till tender
• Chop up garlic and add to the onions
• Add mushrooms and red peppers, and sauce for an additional 5 mins, till vegetables are tender
• Add in cooked
• Add in the cream and increase heat to high
• Add in parmesan cheese and bring the sauce to a boil. Make sure you keep stirring as you do this.
• Once sauce starts boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer sauce till thick enough to your liking
• Remove from heat, and add the cooked pasta and stir. Reserve a little of the pasta water to lighten the sauce as needed.
• Garnish with reserved cheese and serve hot!
  

This was an easy appetizer we made towards the end of the summer, when delicious, ripe heirloom tomatoes were still available at our local farmers market. Why am I posting this now, when there are still snow showers in the air? Well, because I am tired of this dark and gloomy weather – it is March already, shouldn’t we be looking forward to some brightness?! This eatlovecook take on the classic Italian combination of tomatoes and mozzarella is sure to brighten up your mood and your palate instantly.

This is such a quick snack to make, and it’s one of those dishes where the taste comes purely from the ingredients, so make sure you have the best ones available. Thick slices of the sweet, succulent tomatoes get covered with a slab of fresh, soft mozzarella (buffalo would be best) and gets broiled in the toaster oven. A little salt, pepper and a quick drizzle of olive oil is all the additional flavor you’ll need – we also like a tiny piece of red pepper for texture and color on top. That’s it – throw it in the oven for a couple of mins – no fuss, no effort – just what a lazy summer day calls for!

THE RECIPE: Heirloom Tomatoes with Mozzarella

YOU’LL NEED:

• Few thick slices of fresh heirloom tomatoes of different colors (or regular beefsteak tomatoes if making in winter)
• 2×2 inch slice of fresh buffalo mozzarella (or whatever mozzarella you have on hand)
• drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• few small pieces of red pepper to top, if desired
• salt and pepper to season

THE METHOD:

• Top each slice of tomato with the mozzarella slice and pepper piece
• sprinkle salt and pepper on each slice, and place slices on the toaster oven pan
• drizzle the oil on top of the slices, and broil till cheese melts

Just a slab of Mozza will do ya!

After a couple of years of turning to the ubiquitous boxed pasta’s whenever we wanted a quick and cheap Italian meal, lately the wife and I have begun experimenting with some fresh pasta. It all started when I spotted some fresh tagliatelle on sale at the local grocers; once we tasted the true deliciousness of the fresh pasta, it became near impossible to go back to the regular old Barillas! There is something homey and old-worldey about a bowl of fresh pasta tossed in a quick home-made sauce (what, you think we do Ragu?!) and mixed in with some veggies and meats to make it a full meal.

We try to pick up whatever fresh pasta’s are available every few weeks at C-Town or Whole Foods, and yes we shop at both ends of the supermarket spectrum! Last week wifey spotted a packet of potato gnocchi and there was no going back – pasta and potatoes being two of her favorite foods. We made a quick cream sauce, tossed in some onions and fresh red bell peppers, topped it off with some bacon (only on my bowl, ofcourse) and had ourselves a nice hot bowl of pillowy little potato balls.

Now, a word about the Alfredo sauce. It wasn’t a true alfredo in the classical sense of the term – the legend being that the sauce invented by Alfredo di Lelio at his Roma restaurant contained only butter and Parmesan cheese. Instead of the butter, we softened up the veggies in olive oil and added in cream along with the cheese to get that rich velvety texture.

The cream may have overpowered the delicate gnocchi a bit, but it was still a comforting meal on a cold December night. We may stick to a pure butter/cheese sauce next time to get at the heart of the gnocchi flavor a little more when we try this next. The red peppers, soften just lightly so as to leave a little crisp on them, contrasted with the chewy gnocchi perfectly, and brightened up the dish both in taste and in color. I couldn’t resist mixing in a little crumbled bacon for a salty kick also – it wasn’t pancetta, but we weren’t in Rome, after all!

THE RECIPE: GNOCCHI ALFREDO WITH RED PEPPERS

YOU’LL NEED

• 1lb fresh gnocchi
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced medium
• 1 large white onion, sliced medium
• 1/2 pint heavy cream
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the good stuff, not Kraft!) for the suace + 1/4 cup to sprinkle over pasta, if desired
• 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 slices bacon (if desired)
• 1tsp Salt, 1 tsp pepper, and more as per taste + 2tbsp salt for pasta water

THE METHOD:

• In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the oil till shimmering.
• Add in onions and cook on medium-low heat for 3 mins
• Add in red pepper and salt, and continue cooking for another 5 mins till pepper is soft but not fully tender
• Meanwhile, bring water to boiling in your pasta pot as instructed on the pasta packet, usually 4 quarts water for 1lb.
• Once boiling, add in the 2tbsp salt to season the water, and add in pasta. Cook 2-3 mins per packet instructions.
• Add in cream and 1cup cheese to the saucepan with vegetables, and bring to boil.
• Immediately turn heat to low, and simmer for 3 mins till sauce thickens to your liking. Remove from heat
• Drain pasta when done cooking, add immediately to the saucepan with the sauce and mix; you can mix in a separate bowl if more convenient.
• If using bacon, microwave for 2 mins between paper towel sheets, and crumble onto the pasta and mix.
• Sprinkle pasta with leftover 1/4cup cheese and enjoy!

Pillowy potato balls!