Braised pasta sauce, part II
Sep. 25th, 2006 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fredrikegermanRound about June I posted a successful pasta sauce in which I oven-braised fennel with red wine and herbs, roasting garlic and sausage above. This gave a much better fennel flavor than cooking it in the sauce or sauteing seems to yield.
Friday I decided to give it another shot, this time with half (or more) of a farmshare cabbage. Yep, a pasta sauce with cabbage. Really, I'll do most anything to avoid making boiled dinner. And this came out pretty well.
Revised: I left out the eggplant!
In order, into a larger casserole (the nice one![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
astra_nomer and uncle_nomer gave us for our wedding, which matches our china), I put:
1/2 c white wine, cheapo TJ's Cab plonk (I think I prefer red, but I'm into red wine)
A mess of fresh thyme
Two long branches of too-old basil (it's going to seed and tastes metholy, not so bad for this dish but not really for the pesto).
1/2-1 t fennel seed
salt
1/2 head shredded cabbage
1 eggplant
1 chopped farmshare jalapeño, with seeds
1 small head farmshare garlic, peeled (5-6 cloves)
6 italian sausages, cut up this time.
Put the lid on; it didn't really close. Put in the oven at 350F for half an hour, then took it out to shake things down a bit and close the lid fully.
After an hour, I added 3 chopped farmshare tomatos. I would have added more if there had been space in the pot. By this point things were looking dangerously soggy and I was worried about getting liquid on the eggplant (ruining the texture).
I cooked a package of rotini al dente, aiming to finish at the 90 minute mark.
I drained it, then stirred in the braised sauce. I let it sit a few minutes in the hopes it would soak up some of the excess braising liquid. It did, eventually, but we were pretty hungry after waiting two hours for dinner, and I was trying to carbo load, so we ate it while still soggy.
Tasty. Potential downside: Windy. Or maybe that was century-riding messing up my innards.
Next time: red wine, not quite so much of it, slightly bigger pot, more tomato. Braising or oven roasting tomato pretty much only works with fresh and ripe product.
Tried another oven-braising experiment sometime this summer, but I can't remember what I was trying to make except that it was mostly a failure. This recipe seems to turn on the layer of sausage on top, effectively basting the veggies underneath. Any suggestions of meatless methods welcomed (alternative meats, like "just use bacon" or "try ox tails", are OK too but less tricky).
Speaking of ox tails, I haven't put my Iron Chef caribbean-style oxtail and squash soup recipe up here yet, have I?
Friday I decided to give it another shot, this time with half (or more) of a farmshare cabbage. Yep, a pasta sauce with cabbage. Really, I'll do most anything to avoid making boiled dinner. And this came out pretty well.
Revised: I left out the eggplant!
In order, into a larger casserole (the nice one
astra_nomer and uncle_nomer gave us for our wedding, which matches our china), I put:1/2 c white wine, cheapo TJ's Cab plonk (I think I prefer red, but I'm into red wine)
A mess of fresh thyme
Two long branches of too-old basil (it's going to seed and tastes metholy, not so bad for this dish but not really for the pesto).
1/2-1 t fennel seed
salt
1/2 head shredded cabbage
1 eggplant
1 chopped farmshare jalapeño, with seeds
1 small head farmshare garlic, peeled (5-6 cloves)
6 italian sausages, cut up this time.
Put the lid on; it didn't really close. Put in the oven at 350F for half an hour, then took it out to shake things down a bit and close the lid fully.
After an hour, I added 3 chopped farmshare tomatos. I would have added more if there had been space in the pot. By this point things were looking dangerously soggy and I was worried about getting liquid on the eggplant (ruining the texture).
I cooked a package of rotini al dente, aiming to finish at the 90 minute mark.
I drained it, then stirred in the braised sauce. I let it sit a few minutes in the hopes it would soak up some of the excess braising liquid. It did, eventually, but we were pretty hungry after waiting two hours for dinner, and I was trying to carbo load, so we ate it while still soggy.
Tasty. Potential downside: Windy. Or maybe that was century-riding messing up my innards.
Next time: red wine, not quite so much of it, slightly bigger pot, more tomato. Braising or oven roasting tomato pretty much only works with fresh and ripe product.
Tried another oven-braising experiment sometime this summer, but I can't remember what I was trying to make except that it was mostly a failure. This recipe seems to turn on the layer of sausage on top, effectively basting the veggies underneath. Any suggestions of meatless methods welcomed (alternative meats, like "just use bacon" or "try ox tails", are OK too but less tricky).
Speaking of ox tails, I haven't put my Iron Chef caribbean-style oxtail and squash soup recipe up here yet, have I?
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Date: 2006-09-26 02:23 pm (UTC)(If you care about finding entries again, you should use tags. :) )
no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 10:54 pm (UTC)