Asparagus turkey Sausage PAsta with Fresh Mozarella

1. Start Water to Boil, add Salt
2. Brown Sausage
3. Remove and add some olive oil to the pan
4. Add Thin Asparagus cut in half to pan.  Add fennel seeds, red pepper flakes.
5. Once pretty soft, add thinly sliced fennel
6. Add Red Wine to deglaze.  Put Sausage back in and stir with minced Lemon Basil.  Turn Off Heat as Pasta cooks.
7. Cook and Drain Pasta .  Lately we are using the Strangled Priests.
8. Mix Pasta with Sausage Asparagus mixture.  Add Olive oil and a few dashes of Ojai Olive Oil's White Balsamic vinegar.
9. Serve with Freshly Sliced Fresh Mozzarella

A Variation on a Theme: Pasta with Tomotoes and Other Stuff

Eric says I have been dialing this dish in since the winter. Using canned tomatoes and chard and sausage and some other unusual things like adobo sauce from the chitpole pepper can and sun dried tomatoes, the first version of this dish made Eric say, "Wow, this dish would make Uncle Cuccio so mad. Because he would love it and it would be like nothing he ever tasted before."

The ingredients keep changing with the seasons. Here is the version that we made tonight:


1. Start a pot of water boiling
2. Start Heat under your favorite meat searing pan. (Tonight I used non-stick cuz I am going out of town tomorrow and did not feel like having a lot to clean up).
3. Remove casing from Hot Italian Turkey Sausage (or other sausage of choice) and pull into bits and add to hot pan. Brown and when done, turn off heat and leave in pan.
4. Meanwhile, finely mince or press 2 cloves of garlic. Mash with some salt and throw in large bowl with some olive oil.
5. Half a small red onion and slice half moon shapes out of one side. Add to bowl.
6. Core and chop 4 large Delicious Big Beef or Heirloom Tomatoes.
7. Thinly slice about 7 marinated sun dried tomatoes and add to bowl.
8. Drain and add about 1/2 a jar of pitted Kalamata olives.
9. Pull Lemon Basil Leaves off the stems and add to bowl.
10. Stir and pour some more olive oil in, along with some Balsamic Vinegar and lots of Ground Pepper. Allow to sit while sausage finishes cooking and water begins to bowl.

Tonight, Eric and I were working and he asked me to delay dinner an hour, I turned water off and once sausage seemed done, turned it off to, but the tomato mixture was allowed to marinate. This seemed to work out.

11. Once sausage is done, turn off heat and let it rest till needed.
12. Once water is boiling, throw in pasta. I have been a huge egg pasta fan lately and tonight we used the fettucini width egg pasta noodles.
13. When pasta is done, drain. Add Sausage and lots of salt to tomato mixture. Mix with pasta and serve with chopped fresh mozzarella on top.

Volunteer Heirloom Bruschetta

Beautiful Ripe Small Heirlooms from Steve's Farm
Red Onion from Farmer and the Cook
Fresh Garlic from B.D.
Arugula from Steve's Farm
Lemon Basil from BD
Balsamic Vinegar from Kim from Argentina
Olive Oil
Fresh Mozzarella from Rainbow

Olivia combined the above ingredients in the perfect combination and sliced the mozzarella, arranging it around the bowl of tomatoes.
I sliced the bread into 1/2 inch thick slices. Toasted one side, then lightly under toasted the other. Removed from oven, rubbed a cut slice of garlic on the slices, poured some olive oil on them and toasted them a little more.
Instead of putting the tomato mixture on the bread, Olivia served the bowl of tomatoes with the bread on the side.

Pappardelle Pasta with Sausage, Kale and Mozzarella

We have made lots of different versions of this and will continue to vary it depending on what is available. Tonight I have started to record them.


1. Start the Water for the Pasta and add some salt.
2. In a separate heavy pot, heat some olive oil. (Probably about 2 tbl.)
3. Break up Spicy Italian Turkey Sausage into the hot olive oil and allow to brown. Stirring as required to get all sides.
4. As Sausage is browning, dice up 1 leek, 2 carrots and 1 clove garlic. (Sometimes the leeks will be super sandy and you will need to wash them once cut).
5. Once sausage has browned, remove from pan with slotted spoon into a bowl and add a little extra olive oil to the pot.
6. Add Leeks and Carrots to the pot and saute until desired softness and color is achieved. (I usually error on the side of browned and soft). While carrots and leeks are cooking, chop up Fresh Rosemary. (We are lucky enough to have this growing in our yard, so I use it a lot).
7. Once Leeks and Carrots are done, add minced garlic, Rosemary and dried Mexican Oregano. Stir until fragrant, about a minute or so.
8. Add enough Pernod to the pot to deglaze and simmer the veggies for about 2 minutes. (You could use almost anything here. I chose Pernod cuz it was in my cupboard).
9. Add enough Beef Stock (prob. about 1/3 cup) so that you can throw the sausage and slivered kale back in and cook it down into almost a sauce. (I slivered about 1/2 a head of beautiful black kale).
10. Add a smidge of the adobo sauce from a can of chipotles. Add Good Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper.
11. Put the wide egg noodle Pappardelle into the salted boiling water.
12. By the time the pasta is done, about 6 minutes, your 'sauce' is ready.
13. Drain Pasta and mix with sauce. Add some butter to bring flavors forward.
14. To serve, scoop into shallow pasta bowls. Add a bit of lemon zest. Chopped fresh mozzarella and toasted almond slivers.