Pasta e Panna (with a twist)

 We have a dish here called Pasta, Panna e Prosciutto, which is actually a type of mac and cheese with the addition of diced cooked ham. This is a great base recipe to extend from, and the recipe posted here is just that, my own version, which oftentimes I change depending on the ingredients that I have on hand.

8-10 links sausage
1 onion
8oz heavy cream--Panna
Pasta, any will do, I used bow tie
salt, pepper, dried parlsey, grated cheese

Remove sausage from casings and sauteè in olive oil, you can also use ground beef if you prefer. As soon as you give it a quick stir, add onions, and continue sauteeingtil onions are tender, add salt, pepper, dried parsley to taste and if you want add a shot glass or 2 of white wine, I used grappa, like the flavor.

Set aside and cook the pasta in salt water. Once the pasta is cooked, before draining set aside a cup of that pasta water. You may need it.

Add the panna to the sausage mix and on low heat bring to a boil,add a fistful of grated cheese and taste.

 
You may need to add more salt and pepper because heavy cream is bland so may end up cutting out your spice flavor.

Then toss in the pasta until all well mixed and heated through, if it looks a little sticky and dry add in your pasta water until its nice and creamy and serve. If you are a cheese lover you can sprinkle some more grated cheese on it.

Buon Appetito!

Shortcuts

Although I have time at home to cook the old fashioned way, I prefer to prep things in advance so that when I have those busy days or the stores are closed here, I always have something on hand to eat.I know that much of what I will write, you can already find in the grocery stores in the states, whereas I cannot here, although am starting to find them. BUT the point is, if we can make it at home we can save that bit of money, and assure us of the quality of what we eat. No, am not ready for assuming the Grizzly Adams role in the wild just yet----wouldnt want to break a nail! hahahahahahah! Sorry just a bit of humor, and in these weeeeee bit dark times that we live in----humor IS good!

• I have 3 sizes of food grinders, the smallest is just a bit larger than a Krups coffee grinder which is excellent for the smaller stuff. 
• Get a bulb of garlic, clean all the cloves, pop in a grinder, mince well, put in a clean babyfood size jar, cover with olive oil and keep in the fridge. Since there are no preservatives this lasts about 2 weeks if not more just smell it after about that time and you will be able to smell if it starts going bad. Also the good part of this is that if you cover with more than enough oil, you end up getting a garlic flavored oil to drizzle over your bruschetta or whenever you cook. BTW you can do the same with onion and I also do this with fresh parsley. Although am going to try to find those really small ice cube trays and freeze them. Will let you know how it works or if any of you do the freezer method let me know.
• We all know Pesto, easiest thing to make, and Basil is the easiest thing to grow,and if you trim the basil stalks about a 1/4 to a 1/2 way down, you will end up with a basil bush. Trust me I tried it and have a planter the diameter of a large aluminum trash can that was filled with basil leaves. Now with all that basil, pity to waste it, so you make pesto, put it in small containers and freeze. When you are running late, just cook some pasta, defrost some pesto, mix and dinner is served.
•  Now here is a different twist on pesto. Instead of using basil, I prefer Arugula. Here is the link from wikipedia and it explains well where you can find it and its varied uses--hey even mentions my Puglia region--YEAH! 
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruca_sativa   OK so, I get alot of rucola leaves and grind them with pesto ingredients, then I pour it into ice cube trays, freeze and when completely frozen, pop the cubes out into a ziploc freezer bag and when I need them just grab the needed cubes and toss with pasta(after having defrosted).
• These pestos can be spread on pizza and toasted french bread, tossed with pasta. If you want something a little more outrageous, mix in some of that leftover chicken like a chicken salad with a twist.
• Oh and BTW, if your leaves are store bought, which for the cost of things might not be wise-grow your own- I soak all my leafy veggies in water with baking soda for about 10 mins, and then rinse well, they say that it helps to strip some of the pesticides.Especially if you will be eating them raw. May be true because baking soda is great to clean with. 
• Breadcrumbs, I usually mix my own here, we dont have that Progresso type. You can go to a bakery and if they have day old bread, and hardened, grind it into breadcrumbs, mix in salt and pepper, garlic powder, dried parsley and pop in the fridge, when you need it throw in a handful of grated cheese. But do not put the cheese in the breadcrumbs that you keep in the fridge because grated cheese does spoil. But if you use these breadcrumbs often enough then go ahead and add. Then your crumbs are ready whenever you need, coating porkchops, or chicken breasts.
• I do the toasted breadcrumbs for the Pasta di San Giuseppe and always have extra on hand in the fridge since it has no cheese, just salt and pepper, it lasts a good while.

Here are just a few starters and I will add as I go along. Because tricks in the Kitchen are endless. Enjoy. Blessings to you all!

Pasta di San Giuseppe

This is my version of Pasta di San Giuseppe, generally you use sgombro, but I prefer anchiovies. (You can use anchiovy paste if you prefer.)
Basically it's a pasta dish with toasted breadcrumbs, oil, anchiovies and garlic. Another poormans dish but rather tasty. Maybe the only costly thing are the anchiovies. If you can find the ones in the large hermetic jars, invest in it, they are soaking in oil and take a very long time before they spoil, I generally keep them in the fridge.
You will need to toast your breadcrumbs in oil, I make enough that even if I don't use it all, I put it in a ziploc bag and keep it in the fridge, so I will have on hand the next time around.

1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup breadcrumbs
7-8 anchiovy fillets
6-8 dried tomatoes in oil
1 garlic clove
Pasta, here its called mafaldine, its long, thin and wavy on both sides


Put the oil in the skillet as you see on the left, start heating it up and add breadcrumbs. Stir until you have moistened all the breadcrumbs. Add more oil if too dry or add more breadcrumbs if it seems too wet. Medium heat and keep stirring until golden.

After you have toasted the breadcrumbs, take them out of the skillet and put them in a dish or else they will keep toasting and you'll get burnt crumbs.

 This is a bowl of the toasted crumbs.

 In the meantime get your salted water boiling to toss in your pasta.
While the water boils, get about 1/2 cup oil and in a skillet add your cut up anchiovies and start simmering on low until it all breaks up.

 Then add in your slivered dried tomatoes and simmer.
Then add the minced garlic and sautee. A few minutes at best, this too must be passed to another bowl or the garlic will burn. Add salt and pepper to taste but careful with salt, anchiovies can be very salty.

 This is the pasta we use for this dish. They have various types of this, there's the one that is wider, or the type that is wavy just on 1 side. You decide which you prefer. Once the pasta is cooked before draining, set aside about a cup of the pasta water, you may need it later.

 Once pasta is cooked toss in the skillet with the anchiovy mix, stir.
Then add the toasted breadcrumbs a little at a time. You want it a medium dry. If you see that it's too dry add a bit of that pasta water.

This is the finished dish with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs over the top and ready to eat.

Dig in and Buon Appetito!





By the way, you can make same dish, same way but just omit the dried tomatoes, that would make it closer to the original version.

Pasta e Patate (pasta with potaoes)

Here is another simple dish that costs little. Pasta and potatoes, it's almost like when you boil potatoes to prepare them for mashing, only difference is that they are diced then add diced tomatoes and garlic. Thats it and it gets served with pasta.

• Potatoes 2 large, 3 medium,diced, up to you based on how many you will feed.
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced 
• Pasta larger type pasta; doesn't go well with spaghetti type.
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, garlic or onion powder, grated cheese.

Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a medium saucepan.
Add 2 large potatoes diced up.

3 medium tomatoes diced up.

Cover with water.

Add tomatoes, add a bit of water because you want them to be covered at all times.
Add salt and pepper to taste and also some garlic powder or onion powder if you prefer. Keep checking water, dont want to get too low.



Cook any type of larger stout pasta (not good with spaghetti type) in salted water. Drain and mix with the potatoes and serve. You can also add a sprinkling of grated cheese if you wish.

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Here in this photo I had some left over potato 'chowder' so I went ahead and blended it all together, and got a mashed potato 'chowder' where I mixed in some grated cheese. This gets served with slices of toasted french bread, great as an appetizer, or just something to munch on.



**Note-- for those cold nights add some hot pepper powder and see how it warms you up.

Buon Appetito!!