Pasta E Fagioli

Today I have a cold, and having finished off the last of my yellow split pea and ham soup yesterday, I'm craving another bowl of something hot and comforting on this dreary day. What I wish I had is a bowl of pasta e fagioli, a rustic soup I made last week.

Pasta e fagioli is a traditional Italian "peasant" soup made with cheaply available pasta and beans, in addition to other Italian staples such as olive oil, garlic, onion, tomatoes and herbs. The traditional bean of choice is a cannellini (like a white kidney bean) and the pasta can be any small cut pasta. While Pasta e fagioli began as a meatless dish, today it often includes a little Italian meat such as prosciutto or panchetta. For this recipe, I started my pasta and bean soup off with two hot Italian sausages. I get my sausage these days from an awesome Italian Market in Albany, NY called Cardona's and they are incredible. If you ever visit New York's capitol region, Cardona's is well worth the visit as their deli creations are delicious (http://www.cardonasmarket.com/).

They beauty of this soup is that it only take about 30 minutes from start to finish, so it's a great weekday option, but it tastes like it has been simmering away all day. The soup gets great richness from the chicken stock and thickens from the starch from the pasta and by mushing some of the beans. Here's how I made mine.

Pasta E Fagioli

Ingredients:
2 links of hot Italian sausage, casing removed and rough chopped
1 yellow onion, diced
1 rib celery, sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
8 artichoke quarters, from a can or jar, rough chop
8-10 sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil, chopped
1 32 ox box of good chicken stock
32 oz water
2 cans of cannellini beans
1/2 pound small bow-tie (or other small) pasta
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
red pepper flakes (to taste)
salt and pepper
olive oil
Parmesan cheese
fresh parsley

Directions:

Over a medium heat, heat a little olive oil in a large heavy bottom pot. Add the chopped sausage and begin to brown the meat. In the meantime prep all of your veggies. Add the onion, celery and bell pepper and cook until softened. Add the garlic, artichoke, sundried tomatoes, herbs and chili flakes, and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the box of chicken stock. Fill the empty box with water and add that to the pot. Bring the soup to a simmer and add the pasta and 1 can on the beans. Put the other can of beans in a bowl and with the back of a wooden spoon, smash some of the beans, and add to the pot. Stir occasionally and cook until the pasta is al dente, meaning it still has some bite. Add some fresh herbs such as parsley or chives and ladle into soup bowls. Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Bon appetite!

Braised Chicken Breast and Pasta

About a week ago I was still feeling Italian, and in the mood to create a hearty chicken and pasta meal using ingredients I had on hand in the fridge and pantry. This is what I came up with. I had bone-in skin-on chicken breast, and I thought browning them off, adding some aromatic vegetables and braising it all in white wine and chicken stock would be a good idea.  I served it on farfalle pasta with fresh herbs and grated Parmesan cheese.For a side dish I took advantage of the bounty of asparagus we have right now. I wrapped the blanched asparagus in thin prosciutto, topped with olive oil and breadcrumbs and browned them in a hot oven. Here is how I made the chicken pasta dish. I though it tasted great.

In a large dutch oven, heat on medium-high:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil

Add 4 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts (seasoned with salt and pepper) and brown on all sides.

While chicken is browning, thinly slice
- 1 red onion
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic

Once chicken is browned, remove from the pot, and add the sliced onion and peppers (add a little more oil if necessary) and saute until tender. Add garlic, 1 Tbsp of capers (rough chop) and return chicken to the pot. Deglaze the bottom of the pot with 1 cup of dry white wine and scrape all of the browned bits with a wooden spatula. Add 2 cups of chicken stock, 1 tsp of red pepper flakes and 1 Tbsp of dried Italian herbs.

Reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered (or partially covered) until chicken reaches internal temperature of 160 degrees (about 20-25 minutes). Sprinkle with freshly chopped Italian parsley and taste sauce for seasoning. Serve the chicken, vegetables and reduced wine/stock sauce over cooked pasta (I liked farfalle) and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and freshly cracked black pepper.

Back from hiatus.

After a lengthy hiatus, A Wicked Scoff is back. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain a healthy dose of new posts starting with today's entry. While I admit I have been it lazy these last couple of months (blogging that is, not cooking...I prioritize cooking and eating over most things in life...except for my lovely wife), this spring has not been without its share of distractions. With being on vacation in Italy for a week (more on that later), taking advantage of the extra daylight after work to do yard work, and the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I've been a bit preoccupied. After getting some requests and questions from friends recently however on "where's A Wicked Scoff hiding" I decided that I will be a better multi-tasker. It's really not that hard to blog about food and watch hockey at the same time you know.

With all that being said, I want to share with you a little bit about the recent vacation my wife and I went on. We traveled to Italy's Amalfi Coast and the city of Naples, truly one of the most culturally rich and significant ,not to mention beautifully scenic, destinations in the world. From the famous archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculeneum, to Mt. Vesuvius (a volcano that could erupt at any time and wipe out more than a million people) to the jaw dropping twisty winding cliff edge road ways of the famous Amalfi Coast, to the posh Island of Capri, and finally to the rural and touristy mix of towns and fishing villages with impressive architecture and cathedrals, we saw and did a lot. What was as impressive as anything about this destination, as you may well imaging, was the food.

It's no secret that Italy is considered to be paradise for many food lovers, however the regional cuisines across Italy are quite diverse, notably between northern Italy and coastal southern Italy. The region we went to, known as Campania, is known for a few specialties, including pizza (Naples [Napoli] is the birthplace of pizza), fresh seafood, and lemons. Popular dishes from this region include Caprese salad (fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and fresh basil leaves), margarita pizza (thin crust pizza cooked in an extremely hot wood burning oven topped simply with marinara, mozzarella and basil, fresh fried fish (fritto pesce ) typically cuttlefish, calamari and large shrimps, mussels or clams and fresh pasta (very lightly tossed with olive oil, cherry tomatoes and parsley), broiled fish fillet, tuna, sardines, anchovies, and the list goes on. Also traditional for this region is to take a shot of the very potent lemon liquor known as limoncello. Needless to say we ate very well, and I came home inspired to recreate some of the wonderful dishes and flavors I experienced. Maybe a few pounds heavier too with all the gelato (Italian ice cream) I ate!

So while Italian cuisine doesn't seem to have much in common with Newfoundland or New England cooking styles I think you'll be surprised on how many of the dishes I will share with you over the next few weeks will actually be familiar with your taste buds and your cooking philosophy. Simple preparation, fresh ingredients and hearty, satisfying meals.While pizza, fresh herbs, olive oil, buffalo mozzarella and pasta may not be classic Newfoundland/New England ingredients, fresh seafood certainly is. Other rustic ingredients like bread, potatoes and beans are also traditional in Italy as they are in this neck of the woods. Some of the upcoming recipes I will be sharing over the next little while will include broiled swordfish with lemon and olive oil, olive oil fried cod loins, pasta in the style of Sorrento, spaghetti and clams, tuna salad (not what you think), gnocchi (potato pasta), and much more.

Stay tuned, and stay hungry.

Sausage, Peppers and Penne

A Wicked Scoff has been on the road quite a bit recently, as I have been all over New England for my archaeological consulting work. While the weather, hiking and fall scenery was awesome, I am glad to be home again, cooking my own meals. I did however have many good scoffs at restaurants, pizza dives and diners in various towns, eating many bowls of clam chowder and oven toasted grinders (aka subs or hoagies), as well as some really good Thai food, an incredible grass fed organic black angus burger, farm raised elk, and too many grilled Reuben sandwiches to count. Some of the best places I ate was the Common Man's "Boiler Room" in Plymouth New Hampshire and the Black Door in Montpelier Vermont.

This weekend I will be cooking up a storm of my own, and have some new favorites dishes to share, notably a roasted butternut squash soup with caramelized shallots and a splash of Octoberfest beer. In the meantime, here is a quick and simple recipe for one of my all time favorite pasta dishes which I often make during the work week. Make sure to make enough for leftovers to bring to work.

Italian Sausage, Peppers and Penne

For this meal, I use hot Italian sausage, but you can use sweet sausage just the same. I like red bell peppers for this, but it is fine to use any colour of bell pepper, green, red, orange or yellow. The same holds true for the pasta, use whatever you have. Penne is classic for sausage and peppers, so that's what I like (I use a multigrain). Other than that, some olive oil, garlic, red onion, fresh parsley, and real Parmesan cheese are all the ingredients you'll need. Pretty simple.

To begin, bring about an inch of water to a simmer in a deep skillet, preferably one with a lid.
Add 1 pound of sausage , cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remover the lid and continue to simmer until the water has evaporated. Continue to cook the sausage until browned on all sides. Be sure not to poke, prod and pierce the sausage. Let the fat, flavour and juices remain inside where they belong. Once the sausages have browned nicely, set aside in a warm oven while the onions, garlic and peppers cook.

While the sausages are cooking, prepare your vegetables and get a large pot of salted water on the boil. Follow package directions for the pasta and cook until al dente.

For the veggies, thinly slice
- 1 large red onion, halved and sliced
- 2 large/3 medium red bell peppers

Once the sausage is cooked, add 2 Tbsp of olive oil to the pan and set heat to medium high
Saute the onions and peppers until tender and slightly caramelized...about 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium and add
- a pinch of salt and pepper
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced/smashed
- 1 tsp of dried oregano or Italian seasoning

Cook for a couple of minutes and return sausage to the skillet. Drain the cooked pasta and add to the skillet.

Add a drizzle of olive oil and a handful of chopped fresh flat leaf parsley.
Plate the pasta, and two sausages per serving.
Grate a healthy portion of Parmesan cheese over the plate a,d add more freshly ground pepper.


Enjoy!