I like simple. And I like tasty food. This one pan recipe is both!

What kind of Sausage do I use?

I made this recipe with hot Italian sausage, but you can use sweet too. Other good choices are bratwurst, andouille, or polish sausage. This recipe can be made with any sausage you like.

What kind of pasta and cheese go with different sausages?

I used rigatoni in this recipe. Orecchiette or ziti would be great choices too. Flat noodles would be great as well. They’d go perfect with the brats or the polish sausage.

As for cheese, any cheese would work. I used parmesan – a sharp hard cheese, and pecorino romano – a salty, nutty cheese. Swiss cheese would be great with the brats or polish sausage. The andouille would match nicely with some mozzarella and cheddar.

You might want to use an herb that compliments the sausages too. Basil is great with the Italian flavors, but sage or rosemary would be perfect with bratwurst or polish sausage. The andouille pairs well with thyme.

Choose the pasta and cheese on your own tastes. Be creative! Just keep in mind it’s all going into one pan!

Making the One Pan Sausage Bake –

First layer, the pasta. Spread it out evenly in a large casserole pan. Sprinkle with the olive oil and mix it well.

Top it with the onions, garlic and

the tomatoes. Pour the water over the top.

Sprinkle the chopped basil over that.

Next comes the cheese. Spread it evenly over the tomatoes.

Using a sharp knife, make several slits in the sausage on both sides. This will encourage the juices to fall into the pasta and help flavor the sauce.

Lay the sausage on top of the cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Turn the sausage and bake another 15 minutes.

Let it rest about 10 minutes before serving.

© Copyright 2024 The Lazy Gastronome

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We love shrimp – any way you serve it. I bought some cooked shrimp by mistake from the freezer section. I thought it was raw. So what to do besides shrimp cocktails? This dish was so easy and came out delicious!

Marinating the Shrimp

I wasn’t sure how cooked shrimp would absorb the flavors, but it came out perfect!

Place the shrimp in a bowl and top with all the spices.

Stir in the olive oil, making sure each piece is well coated. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

If you are using raw shrimp, only marinate for an hour.

Making the Easy Spicy Shrimp

Heat the ghee and 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. You can substitute European butter for the ghee. It has a much lower water content, or make your own clarified butter ^[5].

Add the green onions and cook just until they are starting to get soft. Push to the side.

Place the shrimp in the hot skillet

and cook until it’s hot, about 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice.

Mix it all together and serve over hot orzo or rice.

© Copyright 2024 The Lazy Gastronome

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Looking for a super easy weeknight dinner? This chicken and gravy is super easy to prepare, smells wonderful while it’s cooking, and tastes like you spent all day on it!

What’s a “Weeknight” meal?

If you work outside the home and have a family, week nights can get stressful trying to prepare a nutritious AND delicious meal for the family.

^[10]

You come home tired, you just want to sit and relax. A “weeknight” ^[10] meal is quick to prepare, doesn’t take a long time to cook, and is comforting and tastes amazing! This one hits all the those points.

Making the Chicken and Gravy – 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large casserole dish, add the soups, pepper and paprika.

Stir it all to blend.

Place the chicken on top of the soups. Score the skin, then sprinkle the olive oil over the chicken skin, then top with the salt, a little more pepper and sage.

Bake 45 minutes to an hour. The skin should be golden and crisp and the internal temperature of the meat should be between 180 and 200 degrees.

Remove it from the oven and let it rest about five minutes.

Stir the gravy before serving.

Serve with mashed potatoes or stuffing and your favorite steamed veggie or a salad – voilà! It’s dinner!

Want to make it even easier?

Instead of mashed potatoes or stuffing, place some whole potatoes in the oven at the same time as the chicken, directly on the rack. Cook until they are soft and steamy. Use a steam in the bag frozen vegetable and you have dinner with only one pan to wash.

© Copyright 2024 The Lazy Gastronome

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We’ve covered three of the four pastas of Rome – and here is the final dish – Pasta alla Amatriciana

What are the Four Pastas of Rome?

The four pastas of Rome are cacio e pepe, gricia, carbonara and amatriciana. They are all made using the same technique of vigorous mixing to form a sauce with the cheese and pasta water. It take practice.

My first try the cheese all clumped up and didn’t melt into the sauce. I thought perhaps I had the pasta and water too hot – and the cheese not grated down enough. So I tried again, letting everything cool a little and grinding the cheeses up in the food processor. The finely ground cheese just melted into the pasta and came out amazing!

Cacio e Pepe ^[15] –

The foundation of the four is cacio e pepe – literally means cheese and pepper. The ancient shepherds carried with them cacio cheese, dried spaghetti  and pepper. With these megar ingredients, they could whip up a delicious, satisfying meal in the fields.

This past is typically made with spaghetti or bucatini and tossed, vigorously, with pecorino romano and parmesan reggiano cheeses, some fresh ground black pepper and a little pasta water. Sound easy? Well – success is in the technique. For more information and the recipe, click here ^[15].

Pasta alla Gricia ^[16] –

The next pasta on the list – pasta alla gricia. This one is almost exactly like cacio e pepe, with the addition of guanciale. Guanciale is a cured pork jowl (or cheek), similar to bacon but saltier. It’s origins go back to ancient Roman times.

This pork is diced, then cooked until the fat is rendered.

I couldn’t find any information on the traditional type of pasta. It looks like it all depends on what you have on hand!  Click here ^[16] for the recipe.

Pasta Carbonara ^[18] –

Pasta Carbonara, probably the most well known of the four. The sauce on this one is sort of a combination of the cacio e pepe and the gricia with some egg added to the mix. It’s usually on spaghetti, but I’ve seen it on penne and rigatoni too. I used pappardelle.

It’s origins aren’t as easy to follow as the ancient two. There is speculation that it was inspired by a pasta from Naples – cacio e uova, meaning cheese and eggs. Click here ^[18] for more information and the recipe.

Pasta alla Amatriciana –

And the last of the four, Pasta alla Amatriciana. Just a few ingredients – pecorino romano cheese, tomatoes, guanciale, and some red chili flakes. This pasta is typically on rigatoni and has a rich, creamy, tomatoey sauce.

This peasant sauce is said to have been passed down generations from father to son. Since we know tomato sauce came around in the late 1600s, we know it was soon after that. This delicious sauce was born in the town of Amatrice.  It is believed this recipe was passed down orally from father to son.  The first written record of this sauce was in 1816 when it was served at the court of the Pope.

All of these pastas are really about the sauce. You can serve them using any pasta you have on hand or the pasta you like the best (I love orecchiette). Once you get the hang of the stirring up the sauce, you’ll make all of these again and again.

The Saucing Technique (Practice makes perfect)

This is the most important part of the pasta. If it isn’t done right, you’ll have clumps of melted cheese instead of a creamy sauce. Not quite as bad as clumps is tiny grated chunks that don’t melt. The goal is a cream sauce.

Cook the pasta in a large, tall pot. When it is slightly al dente (just slightly done), drain it, but be sure to save one cup of the pasta water. There is flavor and starch in it that will really help to create a creamy sauce.

Put the pasta back in the pot and let it cool slightly. Add 1/2 cup of the hot pasta water and stir briskly.

Add just a splash of cold water to finely grated romano and parmesan cheese with fresh cracked pepper.

Stir it with a fork to make a paste.

Drop the paste on top of the pasta,

then stir fast and hard for about 3 to 4 minutes. The harder and faster the better – almost like whisking with a spoon. Add a more pasta water, a little at a time, if the sauce is too thick.

When everything is well blended into a creamy sauce, serve it immediately!

Making the Pasta alla Amatriciana

This dish is a little different than the other three. It has a delicious tomato base with all the delicious cheese. You can use any kind of pasta, but I used rigatoni.

This pasta is prepared a little different than all the other. It includes tomatoes and some crushed pepper, giving it a little zip!

Cook the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the water when it’s drained.

While it’s cooking, cook the guanciale in a dutch oven until most of the fat is rendered.

Add the crushed tomatoes, chili flakes and fresh cracked pepper, about 10 turns.

Stir and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.

Add the pasta to the pot with just a splash of the pasta water.

Next add the cheese and stir vigorously for two to three minutes,

until it’s melted and blended with the rest of the sauce.

Serve hot, topped with a little more parmesan.

© Copyright 2024 The Lazy Gastronome

 

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National gourmet coffee day was last month. It made me start thinking about my coffee crusted ahi and decided to play around with the idea. Crusted with lemon pepper and coffee grounds, seared and topped with a fresh relish. It came out really good.

Give it a try – I think you’ll like it!

Prepping the Ahi

This will be the very first thing you do. It’s going to have to chill.

Whisk the lemon pepper, coffee grounds and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.

Roll the ahi ^[23] steaks in the mixture and coat on all sides.

Place in a single layer, cover and refrigerate at least 30 min.

Making the relish

Place the onion, tomatoes and capers in a large bowl. Gently stir.

In another small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, 1/8 teaspoon salt with 4 turns of fresh cracked pepper.

Pour the mixture over the vegetables and gently stir. Set aside and let rest at least 30 minutes. Letting it sit for a bit allows the flavors to meld and compliment each other.

Cooking the steaks and serving

Heat a heavy grill pan on medium high to high heat. Brush on the oil. This is why grapeseed oil is used. It can tolerate high heats before it starts to smoke.

When the oil is hot, gently lay the steaks on the grill.

Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. To make it rare, the internal temperature should be 90 to 100; medium rare, 130 degrees.

Remove the steaks from the heat to a warm plate. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes.

Top each steak with 1/4 of the relish, then drizzle it all with white truffle oil. Truffle oil is pretty expensive at the grocery store. I ordered mine from Amazon

Serve with orzo or rice.

© Copyright 2024 The Lazy Gastronome

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