Italian Sausage, Cabbage & Angel Hair Pasta

When I was on the 4HB diet a couple years ago, one of my quick and tasty go-to meals was sauteed kielbasa sausage, onions, garlic, brussel sprouts, and brown mustard. It was simple, delicious, and filling. I've been meaning to make the same dish again, but always forget to buy kielbasa when I'm at the store. 

Lucky for me, my boyfriend's mother had a decent amount of sausage leftover from a package that she used to make some crab sauce and gave it to me. I gladly took it off her hands and planned to make it for dinner tonight. I didn't have any brussel sprouts on hand, and I'm pretty sure we just ran out of brown mustard (we need to go shopping this weekend), so I decided to improvise. Brussel sprouts are like little baby cabbages, right? So regular cabbage should be a fine substitute. Onward!

What I didn't realize until I started to cut into the sausage links, was that it was spicy Italian sausage. Now look - I like spice and I like spicy things.... to a point. I need to be able to still taste my food and enjoy it without the chemical burn in my mouth ruining the whole experience. I decided to take my chances and hoped that the crimson-fleshed links wouldn't turn out being too hot to my liking. 

Well it was too hot. I'm pretty sure I have third-degree burns in my mouth right now. 

Anyway, if you like spice and you're a brave soul, then use the spicy Italian sausage. I will be using the sweet Italian sausage next time I make this meal. 

Italian Sausage, Cabbage & Angel Hair Pasta

Italian sausage, sliced (Sweet, Mild, or Hot - whichever you prefer, I had 8 links on hand)

Frozen chopped onion, about 1 cup

Minced garlic, about 2 tablespoons

Cabbage, about half a medium head

Salt

Pepper

A few sprinkles of parsley

A splash of vinegar (just trust me on this, it helps to bring out the natural sweetness of the cabbage)

A few sprinkles of powdered chicken bouillon (you can use chicken broth if you're so inclined)

Angel hair pasta (I used maybe half a pound)

Optional:

Parmesan cheese (but seriously... is cheese really ever optional?)

Slice up the sausage into bite-sized pieces and cook them over medium heat in a non-stick pan until lightly browned. While they cook, chop up your cabbage into thin slices until you have a nice heaping pile of it. When the sausage is browned, add in your garlic, onions, cabbage, salt, pepper, and parsley. Cover the pan and reduce the heat just a little bit and let the veggies sweat it out. Take a peek every now and then and give it a good stir if the cabbage doesn't fuss too much about it. 

Once the veggies are all wilted down and you can stir without it being awkward, add in a splash of vinegar and some bouillon and start cooking your pasta. Keep the sausage and cabbage concoction on a slow simmer so that they get almost caramelized and delicious. Turn off the heat when it looks to your liking. 

When the pasta is done, throw it in a bowl and add some of the cabbage mixture to it to coat. Serve up some pasta in bowls or plates or whatever makes you happiest and add an extra little scoop of sausage and cabbage on top. Sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Sausagey, cabbagey goodness!

My mother and I both loved this dish, but we were both making crazy faces and required tissues to get through it. Perhaps your senses are more resilient than ours. 

Today I Made: Pesto Shrimp & Pasta

I don't have a fancy camera, but I promise you it looked (and tasted) good.

So today I had a craving for pasta. I haven't eaten very much pasta in the last 6 months or so - mostly because I just seem to have lost the nagging desire for it (this is a good thing, I promise you). I don't get cravings for pasta too frequently, so I decided to pay it some mind tonight instead of shoving it under a rug. 

I had some shrimp on hand, a bag of frozen broccoli florets, and some fresh mushrooms, so I went to work. The result was a satisfying and delicious meal that didn't take a whole lot of time or effort. I'm going to warn you now that I'm sort of a "make it up as I go" cook so I don't measure anything unless I'm baking or trying something that I'm completely unfamiliar with. So in my recipe write-ups you should expect a lot of ingredients with a lot of fairly inaccurate guesstimates of amounts of ingredients used. But if you're comfortable with eye-balling things yourself, then you should have no problem making my "recipes" taste as good as I intended them to. Let your hungry little heart guide you.

With that in mind:

Pesto Shrimp & Pasta

1 pound peeled, deveined shrimp (I used the pre-cooked shrimp)

Olive oil

Frozen chopped onions, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup 

Minced garlic

Fresh mushrooms, sliced

Frozen baby broccoli florets (I used a bag of the Pictsweet)

Angel hair pasta (I would have used whole wheat, but I was out)

Your favorite jar of pesto (I used maybe 2/3 of a bottle)

Salt

Pepper

Parsley (I used dried)

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Put some water in a pot to boil for the broccoli and pasta. Add some salt - it's the only chance you got to flavor the pasta while it cooks! You don't need oil in the water, I read somewhere that it doesn't actually do a thing for you, just stir the pasta after you add it to avoid sticking. 

Anyway! Water on the stove to boil. 

While the water is doing it's thing, you want to make sure your shrimp are clean and devoid of any tail/shell pieces. I peeled off all the ends and gave them a good rinse. Set those aside for right now. Add a splash of olive oil into a non-stick pan so you can sautee your ingredients. Add the frozen chopped onion (I hate cutting onion and will avoid it at all costs - I'm not sorry) and a few generous squeezes of minced garlic (I am also guilty of using bottled minced garlic when I'm lazy... again I'm not sorry). Add some salt and cook that over medium heat until the onion turns translucent. Slice up your mushrooms into quarter-sized pieces and toss them into the pan with the onions and garlic. Add some ground black peppers and dried parsley to the party.  

The mushrooms will initially suck up all the moisture in the pan, but don't panic! Give it a minute and they'll ease up and stop being selfish. Don't add any additional moisture, you really won't need it!

Cook all the ingredients until they're acceptably soft (always taste your food!) and toss in the shrimp and a generous amount of pesto. At this point, your water should be boiling. Add the bag of frozen broccoli florets and cover to return to a boil. Cook the broccoli just for a couple minutes, remove from the water with a wire skimmer and toss that into the pesto concoction. Give it a good stir, cover and let that simmer while you cook the pasta. 

Add the angel hair pasta to the pot of boiling water, and cook for about 2 minutes or al-dente. Remove from the water and add into the shrimp pesto pan (try not to get pasta all over the stove like I did tonight. Proper tools are key.)

Stir and mix it all up until the pasta is coated. Add more pesto if you need it, simmer it for another couple minutes to marry all the flavors and enjoy!

Top with some Parmesan cheese if you're into that sort of thing and eat the hell out of it. 

My mom inhaled her bowl of pasta and nearly choked... that's how I know she liked it. She's a far fussier eater than I am, so that's a good sign.