Sausage and Peppers Penne

I'm making an "oldie but a goodie" recipe tonight; Sausage with Peppers Penne.  I think the name was originally longer and more discriptive, but my mom wrote it down for me when we got married, and I have made it a few times since, therefore I don't remember what it's actually called anymore.

It's a really simple recipe.  The problem I have incurred is that it calls for Emeril's Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Pasta Sauce... which doesn't seem to exist anymore.  So, I make due with Newman's Roasted Tomato and Garlic Sauce, or what Emeril used to call his "GAAAAAALIC" Pasta Sauce, now boring-ly Emeril's Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce.

Basically, you take cooked Penne (it says 6 cups... I used a small package, whole wheat) and top it with the rest.
Cook a package of Italian sausage, in casings, over medium-medium high heat, turning to prevent burning the casings.  I use a package that has 6 sausages, and I used the mild kind, though you could get sweet or spicy.  I think spicy would be great, but I wasn't sure if my daughter would eat some.   You can also get them straight from the butcher.

Remove the sausage from the pan (use a large, flat pan, preferably with a couple of inches of height to keep in the ingredients), wipe out the pan and add vegetable oil (to lighten the dish and make sure you have the right amount of oil, about 1 TBS -- this is optional, but will prevent it from having pools of grease on top of the finished dish).

Add 1 cup of green bell pepper (2 medium peppers), 1/2 cup (or 1 medium) each yellow and red peppers, cut into 1/4"-1/2" strips.  I would definitely not substitute or leave out a color, here.  All three have distinctive tastes.  Without the red pepper, it would definitely not taste right.  With too much green, it wouldn't be sweet enough.  And the yellow is sweet and pretty.  Also slice up and half one medium onion.  Put these in the pan and saute about 6 minutes; the veggies should still be pretty crisp.  Add 6 cloves of minced garlic (no, it's not too much.  I added 8, in fact.)  Saute another 1-2 minutes.  Add back the sausages, cut diagonally into 1-2' slices (diagonal helps with the casing being chewy and looks prettier).  Add 1 24 oz jar of some sort of roasted pepper/tomato a/o garlic tomato-based pasta sauce such as the one described.  Most 'normal' sized jars are 24-oz.  Simmer on low for a few minutes until everything is heated through and the flavors combine; don't simmer for more than 5-10 minutes, or the peppers will be mushy, which it VERY undesireable to the discerning palate.  The recipe says to add 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese at this point, removing from the heat and stirring until melted.  I don't really like mozzarella and it makes it hard to clean.  I just add a little bit of parmesan or a parmesan/romano blend, and top with a pinch of the parmesan (as stated in the recipe).  I don't think the mozzarella is necessary, but feel free to try it with or without.

For one cup of the pasta and 2/3-3/4 cup of the sauce mixture, it is about 450 calories.  I don't know the other specs off-hand, I just remember it saying "453 calories" on the recipe card my mom wrote out for me.  But I think that's really good.  It's very filling and it is warm and comforting, with rich tomato flavor and PASTA!  One bowl has a ton of veggies, but in my opinion, you should probably have a salad or something on the side to get the right proportion of veggies/protein/grains.

 One more issue with this recipe:  24 ounces of tomato sauce is usually 2-4 ounces shy, if you like your pasta to have some sauce cover it a bit.  So, you can do a few things: you could buy two jars and save the remainder of the second in the fridge; you could add some water, but I don't think that's actually going to make it better for you; you could add some stock... still not going to really help it too much, though it will loosen the sauce slightly; you could buy a tiny can of tomato sauce, the plain kind for sale by the chopped tomatoes, and add as much of that as you'll need.  That will add some extra sauce and loosen the sauce up a bit without compromising or watering down the flavor.  Or, you could just eat it as is, if you don't really want the sauce and the pasta to combine.

Overall, it's a great recipe that's low-calorie, satisfying, and it's easy and quick to make.  I suggest you try it some night!

Sweet 'N Sour Sauce

One of my daughter's favorite things to eat is sweet 'n sour chicken. We often will get some kind of oriental food, and the restaurants often have a version of this famous American-Chinese food dish. Jocelyn has always loved to eat steamed rice, and the sweetness of the sauce with the standard child protein - fried chicken in bite sizes - makes this dish a winner.

The problem with this is the sauce. Most places have this IMMENSELY red sauce that obviously contains some sort of food coloring, probably red #40 or some other dye that we'd prefer not to eat in such high quantities. If it was just a little, that'd be one thing, but she eats lots of this sauce, and at least once a week, and it stains her fingers, it has so much dye in it. This is not what we'd consider healthy, and to top it off, it stains worse than almost anything else. (And is drippy to boot.) My husband and I have always wanted to try to make our own sweet 'n sour sauce.

Today, we ordered Chinese food from a delivery place nearby, Dragon Cafe Express. We ordered Sweet 'N Sour Chicken for Jocelyn and my husband to share, a family size, and (this is the first time this has happened with this restaurant) we did not receive the sauce, just the entree without sauce. This, as any parent will understand, was a disaster, because without sauce, the chicken might as well be fried radishes or something - it's inedible to a three year old expecting sweet sauce!

We both ran to the computer to Google a recipe, and pieced one together. This is basically what we got:

• 1/2 c ketchup
• 1/3 c vinegar
• 2/3 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c water
• 1 TBS corn starch

First three ingredients: mix in pan, heat until simmering, remove from heat to slowly add in the water + cornstarch mixture, whisking as you add.  Return to heat and simmer, then turn off heat, stirring occasionally.  The sauce will thicken as it cools.

We decided to use some of the other recipes' ideas, and add a little bit of soy sauce and, since we didn't have straight pineapple juice, some of the Simply Orange juice with added pineapple we had bought for our daughter.  Probably about 1 - 2 TBS of each.

The sauce was a hit!  It was a bit thick once it cooled to luke warm (a good eating temperature), and we decided we would use a different recipe without ketchup next time to adapt to the thickness problem as well as the pseudo-ketchup flavor.  It kind of reminded me of a mild BBQ sauce you might get on deli meatloaf or something.  We also thought we'd use apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar instead of the plain white vinegar, just to give it dimension.   I actually liked the orange+pineapple; you could almost make an "Orange Chicken" sauce by adapting this sauce to have more of the juice.  Some of the recipes called for adding minced garlic, ginger, or chives/green onions, and some called for making an infusion with said ingredients, also perhaps adding crushed red pepper flakes or a red pepper itself for flavor.  Also, many added salt, but if we are adding soy sauce, we decided not to add the salt.

All-in-all, it was fun, fast, and easy to make, and making the chicken itself wouldn't be that hard!  (Though maybe a little messy... I'm not a fan of frying at home, especially without a deep fryer.)

I was so impressed with my husband and I, both that we were working so well as a team, had the same idea, and carried it out to a yummy completion!  My daughter never knew that we didn't actually receive the sauce.  A beautiful way to do lunch (and to learn a new, quick weeknight recipe)!