Sunday, June 7, 2015

A Pasta Kind of Week

Earlier this week I looked in my fridge and saw chicken sausage and lots of peppers.  I decided to make some pasta - farfalle with sausage, peppers and tomatoes.  I almost never buy sauce for pasta, but it is easy enough to saute onions and peppers, add some canned tomatoes and seasoning, throw in the sausage to cook and mix it with the pasta.

Since my daughter-in-law was away on business, I sent the pasta home with my son and grandson to finish.

Out in the garden on Thursday I was stunned by the amount of parsley and basil I had growing.  I guess all that rain has been good for herbs.  So, I decided to make some parsley pesto.  On Friday I made more farfalle, this time with peas and sausage and pesto.  Friday night we all had dinner together, with Charlie especially liking the peas and smiling cause mommy was home.

In the midst of this pasta and sausage madness, I received a recipe to test for America's Test Kitchen on Friday.  Guess what was in it.  You got it.  Pasta and sausage.

The recipe was for a sausage lasagna cooked in a cast-iron skillet.  Since I have a nice collection of  Le Crueset pots, enameled cast-iron, I was all set to go.  I made the lasagna this afternoon.  I was surprised at how good it tasted.  It was the first time I ever used no-bake noodles.  They are much thinner than regular noodles and the lasagna doesn't seem as filling, so you can eat more.  Not sure if that was a good thing, but the dish sure was good.

I'll be anxious to see this recipe on TV just to be sure I did it right.  Here are some pics:



4 comments:

  1. OK-this looks yummy! I just bought some small herbal plants and hope they grow so I can have fresh herbs instead of the powder or buying them at the grocery store only to have 90% of the rest go bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm growing all my herbs in pots this year. Finally, I have decent looking parsley. And beautiful sage. Which is good for pasta with browned-butter sage.

      Delete
  2. I like fresh sage for saltimbocca. Makes it taste so much better. That does look good Denise and I rarely eat lasagna. It just was never a traditional food for us growing up. I was surprised to find out how many people made lasagna when I first came here. Think I have only ever made it once.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mother made it a lot, being that she was Italian. I sent my son home with half the leftovers tonight. I only make it for special occasions. This version was really good. I have never made saltimbocca. Something else to try - after I make a pizza with all my leftover cheese from the lasagna.

      Delete

I love to hear your comments and will try to reply on this blog and visit your blog when available.