Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Sausage Pasta Soup with Chiptole and Herbs

Again, you don't need to start with bacon, but I did.

  1. Start a pot of salted water on a path to boil.
  2. Mince up a few slices of bacon and put in thick heavy pot like a Crueset.
  3. While bacon cooks, thinly slice up an onion, chop up some carrots in desired shape and chop up some celery in desired shape.
  4. When bacon has rendered its fat, add sausage to pan. Tonight we used Mild Italian Turkey Sausage from Rainbow.
  5. When Sausage is done, remove and add more fat if necessary to pan. We used olive oil tonight.
  6. Add onions, carrots and celery. Stir and allow to cook to your liking. I like them browned.
  7. Add stalks of thyme, a bay leaf, some chopped rosemary and what ever else you want. I also added a lot of ground black pepper. Stir and allow herbs to get in there.
  8. Add 1/2 cup of Muir Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes and stir.
  9. Add two canned chiptoles in adobo sauce and some of the adobo sauce.
  10. By this time water should be boiling. Add your pasta. We used Strangled Priest Noodles. They take 8 minutes.
  11. Add the broth to your soup pot and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer a bit. Add the sausage back in and salt to taste. Add chopped parsley if you like.
  12. Drain pasta when done.
  13. To serve, put some pasta in a bowl, and pour soup over it. Sprinkle bacon on if you made it.

Pan Baked Eggs with Sun Dried Tomotoes and Dill

I know that I have mentioned my favorite Cutco pot before. When cooking for 1 or 2, I would choose this pot over all my All Clad, Creuset and other fanciness any day.

1. Mince up 2 slices of bacon (optional) and begin cooking in the Cutco pan or equivalent.
2. Mince a little red onion.
3. When bacon done, remove and leave desired amount of grease, or simply start with another fat like olive oil.
4. Cook onions for a little bit, add Mexican oregano or other herb of choice and add 5 or so perfectly dried Sun Dried Tomatoes from Farmer and the Cook. Stir to coat the tomatoes in oil.
5. Crack four eggs onto of the onions and sun dried tomatoes. Cover and set timer for 6 minutes.
6. Poke at yokes to check for "doneness". (Lately I like my yokes cooked and semi firm).
7. Remove from heat and using your Cutco spatula, cut into pieces and remove from pan.
8. Sprinkle with bacon if using. Sprinkle with Olivia's amazing dried dill, maybe some fresh ground pepper and or her latest smokey paprika salt.