Stewed Lentils with Sausages

photo: Simply Recipes

Stewed Lentils with Sausages

 I love good comfort food, chicken noodle soup when your sick, meatloaf and mashed potatoes that remind me of being a kid, you know the classics. But the longer I live in Italy, the more I love Italian comfort food and wish I had been raised on passatelli in brodo, potatoes and cabbage mash or pasta norcina. Another classic Italian comfort food - stewed lentils with sausages. Lentils are very Italian and found in many dishes across the boot, but they are eaten most during the holidays. On New Year's Eve it is best to eat a few spoonfuls of stewed lentils with your cotechino to ensure fortune in the coming year! But the best lentils in Italy are from the tiny mountain top village of Castelluccio di Norcia on the Marche-Umbria border. The tiny greenish/brown legumes are not only known for their soft skin & creamy texture, but the beauty of the fields in May-June when the lentils are in bloom!

Stewed Lentils with Sausages
lenticchie in umido con salsicce

Serves 4

6 Tablspoons/80 ml Olive oil
1 carrot small, diced
1 onion small, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
2-3 leaves of sage
250 grams/a little over a cup of lentils left to soak in cold water for a few hours
4 sausages
200 ml or 1 cup of passed tomatoes (pomodoro passato) or pureed tomatoes
2-4 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken)
salt & pepper

In a heavy bottomed pot on low heat add olive oil and gently sweat the garlic, celery, carrot and onion with a crack of salt and pepper. Once the vegetables are soft, turn up the heat a bit adding the sausages. Cook the sausages on all sides just to get them started.

Add in the sage leaf (you can add or substitute any herbs you like). Drain the lentils, then add them to the pot along with the tomatoes. Pour about 2 cups of stock (or 400 ml) into the pot and bring up to a slow simmer.

Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are tender, adding a little stock if it begins to look too thick.

To finish, adjust seasonings with salt and pepper, fish out the sage and garlic if you like.
Drizzle good extra virgin olive oil and serve with crunchy toasty bread.

Decadent Lasagna Bianco with Porcini & Sausage

During the snow storm of the century in Central Italy, I can't think of a better way to warm up than devouring a plate of decadent pasta & a good bottle of red after a day of shoveling the drive. Perfect for a cold winter's night, lasagna bianco,  'white lasagna' is made with porcini mushrooms, sausages & rich creamy bechamel, a local classic in northern Le Marche. A refined take on the usual red sauce classic, that will have your mouthwatering for more after the first bite. 

Extra Delicious Tip: Make sure to have your pasta sheets large enough to hang over the edges creating golden crispy edges!

Lasagna Bianco
White Lasagna

serves 6
1 recipe of egg pasta or 4 sheets of fresh pasta
1 recipe of béchamel sauce
8 oz. sausage meat (250 gr)
2 cloves garlic, whole, peeled
2 big handfuls (about 2 cups) chopped mushrooms (we use porcini, chanertelle and other local wild mushrooms)
small handful of chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

In a skillet on low heat slowly brown whole peeled cloves of garlic for 2-3 minutes turning frequently. Then raise the heat to medium, add the sausage meat to the pan and all to cook slowly until there is no pink in the meat about 8-10 minutes.  With the back of a fork smash the meat into little pieces.  Then add in your mushrooms and season with salt & pepper.

Once the mushrooms cook out their liquid, lower the temperature and cook for 10-15 minutes until nice & soft. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan if all the liquid cooks out so the pan doesn’t go dry.

Shut off the heat and taste, checking your salt & pepper, stir in parsley.

Assembly of the lasagna
Have ready parmesan, sausage & mushroom mixture, béchamel, pasta sheets & baking dish.

Start by placing a small amount of bechamel in the bottom of your baking dish - spreading it out.

One layer of pasta into boiling water until it is half-cooked. (Cooking time will vary based on type of pasta - fresh vs. dried)

Put the pasta down in the baking pan. Add a quarter of the mushroom sausage mixture, dotting the top with bechamel and a healthy sprinkle of cheese. Repeat this process until you have 4 layers.

Bake at 400 degree oven until the edges are golden brown & bubbly.
Freezes well. If you take out of the freezer, allow to defrost & come up to room temperature, then hit the corners of the lasagna with a few drops of milk to add moisture.

Tagliatelle Pasta with Porcini Mushrooms

Fresh porcini mushrooms are meaty & delicious but light enough for a summer pasta!Porcini mushrooms found in the woods of Le Marche on one of our hunts!

Here is a simple pasta sauce recipe using fresh porcini or other wild mushrooms. This dish is cucina povera at its best yet tastes elegant & refined at the same time. Seasonally this is a late spring/early summer dish. Procini in particular freeze surprisingly well, extending their season long after June, which is how we are still enjoying them today as this year's mushroom 'season' was highly anticipated but lack-luster at best.

We served this as one of the 2 pasta courses for the wedding we did in June. Not a single bite was left on anyone's plates - enough said! You can also use this 'sauce' as a topping for crostini as a tasty antipasta!

Pasta with Porcini Mushrooms
Tagliatelle con Funghi Porcini

serves 4
2 cloves of garlic
extra virgin olive oil
meat of 1 sausage
1 lb of wild mushrooms - porcini are our favorites
2 tablespoons heavy cream
small handful of parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
tablespoon of white wine
fresh pasta

In a frying pan heat 3-4 glugs of olive oil & add brown whole cloves of garlic. Once brown, remove from pan & discard.

In the same pan, sauté sausage meat, breaking up into tiny pieces with a wooden spoon.

When sausage meat is broken into crumbly bits & it is thoroughly cooked (without pink meat) add the mushrooms & continue to sauté for a few minutes.

Add in white wine & lower heat, reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Pour in cream, cook for 30 seconds. Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper. If it looks a little dry add a spoonful or two of the pasta water.

Finish with chopped parsley.

Toss with fresh cooked pasta.

Pasta all Norcina ~ Rich & Creamy

For a richly flavored creamy sauce with sausage - it can't get much easier than this! Plus it pairs perfectly with store bought dry pasta (we recommend rigatoni or penne). If you have access to fresh truffles, you can shave it over the top to transform this rustic dish to something exquisite!

Most of you know this sauce as Norcina - but at our house we affectionately call it - pasta Rossana in honor of our dear friend who first taught Jason this simple winter sauce! We'd arrive for dinner with a hungry look in our eyes begging for 'pasta Rossana' and its meaty creamy goodness. She would laugh & say "Dear it is not MY sauce but the sauce of Norcia." We nod understandingly, smile back & ask for another serving!

Pasta alla Norcina
Pasta with Sausages & Cream

Serves 4

6 oz. / 150gr of sausage meat
1 small carrot, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, peeled
olive oil
salt & pepper
1/2 cup/ 125ml cream (panna per la cucina)
small handful of fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 lb./ 500gr short pasta of your choice (penne or rigatoni work wonderful) you can also use gnocchi, orecchietti or strozzapreti

(Optional: Shave truffles atop when in season)

Get a big pot of water going for your pasta.

With a few glugs of olive oil in a pan, throw in the garlic clove whole and gently, on very low heat sweat garlic until lightly brown. Then discard garlic.

Add chopped carrot and sweat over low heat for a minute or two.

Add in the sausage meat. Raise the heat slightly and with the back of a fork break the meat up as it cooks.

Add in the cream, lower the heat and let it reduce by half. Give it a taste and check the seasonings adjusting by adding salt and pepper if needed.

Shut off the heat until your pasta is ready. Then on low heat, bring your sauce back up.

Drain the cooked pasta from the water and place directly into pan. (Do NOT discard your pasta water).

Over low heat, mix the pasta together with the sauce and a handful of cheese, adding a little pasta water if needed. Give it a taste, adjust the seasonings if needed.
Serve immediately.

(If you are able to find truffles, shave over the top just before serving or at the table.)

Peperonata ~ Stewed Peppers and Grilled Sausages ~ Perfect for the Game

This year we had over 80 pepper plants in the ground yielding hundreds of pounds of peppers!! Needless to say we ate A LOT of peppers this summer & fall! They have such a great flavor & we used them in tons of dishes. But everyone's favorite is peperonata or stewed peppers. They are delicious piled on crostini to soak up the juices or even better with grilled sausages - awesome! (Not to mention - this is THE perfect lunch or dinner to feed a hungry crowd for a football game!)

Stewed Peppers
Peperonata

4-5 bell peppers, cut into large pieces, cleaned
a big handful of whole cherry tomatoes
1 yellow onion sliced
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil

• In a large skillet or pot , heat 1/3 cup of olive oil.
• Saute garlic until golden brown & then discard.
• Reduce heat to low & slowly saute the onion 12 - 15 minutes until well cooked. but do not brown it.
• Raise heat & add peppers.
• Season with plenty of salt & pepper.
• Allow peppers to cook, stirring frequently 10 minutes until the ends start to shrivel.
• At this point, throw in your cherry tomatoes & allow to cook another 10 -15 minutes until the peppers are soft & not mushy and the cherry tomatoes have let their juices out.
• Taste to check the seasonings.
• Serve hot, warm or cold.

a perfect pepper from our garden