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The Best Italian Sausage Meat Sauce
The Best Italian Sausage Meat Sauce
I love me a good meat sauce; whether it’s ground beef or in this case, Italian sausage. Once you try this sauce, there will be no reason to buy jarred pasta sauce again. This meat sauce is obviously great over any pasta of your liking; mine being linguine; but is also a great base for lasagna and even pizza.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb pork Italian sausage
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 head garlic minced
- 8 oz crimini mushrooms sliced; optional
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 2 lbs roma tomatoes diced
- 1/4 cup fresh oregano chopped
- 1/2 cup Italian basil chopped
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp crushed red pepper optional
- 1 lb linguine prepared according to box directions
- parmesan cheese shredded
Instructions
- Brown your Italian sausage in olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat for 8 minutes. Remove the Italian sausage from the pan.
- Add in the onions, garlic, and optional mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add in the diced tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt, and optional crushed red pepper. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the Italian sausage.
- Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes.
Butternut Squash Soup
Butternut Squash Soup
Every time I make this soup(which isn’t very often), I ask myself why I’m not making this all the time. Butternut squash soup is one of my favorites and is extremely easy to make. My version uses bacon, homemade croutons, and blue cheese crumbles as a topping. If you want this soup to be vegan, omit the bacon and blue cheese; using olive oil to sauté the vegetables in. If you want this soup to be gluten free, omit the croutons. Ultimately, it’s a win-win with how tasty this soup turns out.
Equipment
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 6 strips bacon diced; fat reserved
- 1 large butternut squash peeled, seeded, and cubed
- 3 medium russet potatoes peeled and cubed
- 3 large carrots sliced
- 3 ribs celery chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 1 head garlic peeled and minced
- 8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
- 2 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp ground white pepper
- 2 tsp thyme
- blue cheese crumbles
Garlic Croutons
- 4 slices white bread cubed
- olive oil
- garlic powder
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, brown the bacon until crispy. Scoop out and set aside. Keep the grease.
- Add in all of the veggies and brown for 10 minutes in the bacon fat.
- Pour in the stock and seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes until the veggies are soft.
- Using an immersion blender, purée the soup until smooth.
Garlic Croutons
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the bread cubes on a baking sheet. Drizzle over olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, flipping half way through. Let cool.
Top with bacon, garlic croutons, and blue cheese crumbles.
Grilled Whole Red Snapper
Grilled Whole Red Snapper
Cooking whole fish comes off as intimidating to a lot of people. It shouldn’t be since it’s quite easy and significantly cheaper than buying fillets. Red snapper is one of my favorite whole fish to grill. It has a slight sweetness in taste and is very versatile in what you can do with it. This red snapper that I grilled was just over 2lbs; stuffed with a parsley/caper/garlic mixture. It took a total of 20 minutes on the grill and would take about the same in a 400 degree preheated oven.
Servings: 2
Equipment
- grilling basket
- chimney starter
- charcoal
- charcoal grill
Ingredients
- 2 lb whole red snapper scaled and gutted
- 1/4 cup parsley finely chopped
- 2 tbsp capers finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- sea salt to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- lemon wedges for serving
Instructions
- Combine the parsley, capers, garlic, crushed red pepper, sea salt, and olive oil in a small bowl.
- Make 3-4 cuts into the snapper on both sides of the fish.
- Stuff each of the cuts with the parsley mixture.
- Place in a grilling basket.
- Start the charcoal in a chimney starter until they are gray. Place in the grill and put on the grate. Put the grilling basket directly over the charcoal.
- Grill the snapper for 10 minutes a side.
- Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Carefully remove each fillet off the center spine with 2 forks and serve.
Spicy Refrigerator Pickles
Add all of the ingredients into a jar, shake it up, and refrigerate for 2 days before eating.