Standing in front of the cold, white thing in my kitchen, I realized that with a little work, something resembling a meal would be on the table in about half an hour. I spotted some Smoked Andouille sausages, an onion, shredded cheese, garlic, salt & pepper, cayenne pepper, pasta and some pasta sauce. Without realizing it, Trader Joe's would be providing every ingredient for this dish tonight.
What to do? I remember reading a while back about some weird spaghetti/chili dish out in Cincinatti, that idea spawned what you see in the picture above. Seriously. That's how odd my thought processes can be sometimes. In any case it was time to begin the prep. Set the water to boil, get a pan hot (more on that later), get the sauce warming in a small pot. Chopping onions reminds me that I need to take some cooking classes and learn the proper way. Anyone want to pay for them for me? Didn't think so.
Yes, I'm making a mess. Yes, I'll have to clean it up but I tend to clean as I go, hopefully that comes across as efficient and not just dumb. Notice the rough cuts on the sausage? That knife sucks for cutting sausage. It cut everything else just fine though. Oh and I did pour a glass of wine to taste. It was the Big Red Hiney I got as a gift from the wonderful Cheryl at Skylite Cellars (@SkyliteCellars). Opened it list night while doing an informal test of the Wine Soiree (@WineSoiree). The test was a smashing success by the way. Another blog entry will give you more information.
Anyways the time came to put the sausages in the hot pan, which I decided to spray with some oil first. Big mistake. Note to self: do not set your stovetop to medium-high to brown sausages. Immediately my place filled with whitish, burning, choking oil smoke. There goes the smoke alarm, raising a god damn racket. Shit! Pull pan off stove, cringe, inhale smoke, turn stove down to "4". Choke a bit, realize the world is not in fact ending and move on with life.
That was stupid of me. The pan was still really hot when I threw the sliced sausages back on, the result is what you see. No biggie, just a note for the next time I try something like that. One of many notes I had to make during the events of this evening. It was time to add in the onions, which I did but failed to note on camera. By this time the sauce was simmering away nicely so I added in the garlic and cayenne. Visions of an Arrabiata style sauce floated through my head. Seriously, I know jack shit about cooking as you can tell.
Steam rising from the big pot indicated the water was ready for it's date with Spaghetti. You might call it a hot date? Come on, that was a bit witty! Putting the nearly-incinerated sausages and slightly browned onions (at least I did that right!) in with the pasta sauce got me excited. One you got past the smell of burnt oil and charred andouille, the aromas were tantalizing! Or maybe I was just getting drunk.
Doesn't look like much, does it? I know, it looks pretty gross, but I'm not a chef and have no concept of creating pretty food. At this point during my culinary adventure the pasta was about done and the sauce was boiling up nicely. My intent was to get all those flavors in little pot to mingle together, like the Catalina Wine Mixer! (Stepbrothers reference). I quickly drained the pasta water out, threw the spaghetti back into the pot and dumped the sauce in with it. Why? Last week I read that since pasta cooks from the outside in, when you add something back into it after it's cooked, it'll absorb the flavors. Cool stuff!
That picture makes my dish look something like deranged spaghetti and meatballs. Oops! The smell was still pretty good despite the sausages surviving nuclear winter courtesy of my inability to find "medium high" on my stove.
Plated for your pleasure. The shredded cheese blend was Sharp Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Asadero and Queso Blanco. I chose it versus Parmesan because I wanted something a bit creamier to offset the spice of the Andouille. That part of the dish worked out. Texturally, I liked it because you got the lightly al dente pasta, creamy cheese and slightly (ok very) crispy sausage.
Next time, don't burn the damn sausages, use a touch more tomato sauce, less garlic and a different form of pasta. That's what I learned tonight.
Beau Carufel
Nice write up. The pictures add a lot, and it's cool to talk about the process, good and bad.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of the more fun blogs I've written and you're exactly right, it was cool to talk about the process and what went through my head.
ReplyDeleteboats and hoes.
ReplyDeleteyeah, with sausage in a pan, you can start it lower until some of the fat renders out, then crank it up a little once there's some fat in the pan to get a good brown. With Italian sausage, you can actually put a little water and wine into the pan and put the lid on. The liquid will steam the sausage so it's cooked- but not dry- then you can finish with a brown. Great w/ beer and brats too.
The chili/spaghetti thing you're referring to is an unholy creation of Ohio's Skyline Chili. Noodles covered in chil covered in absurd amounts of bright yellow shredded cheese. Probably not something seen in the San Diego diet. However, a midwestern staple, and I imagine it's amazing at 3 AM when significantly boozed up.
Joe thanks for the tips, I'll do the andouille that way next time I try it. After reading your reply I had an idea of using a hearty beer to steam up the sausages, to hopefully add some more flavor to the sausage.
ReplyDeleteOne that beer boils off I could brown them up and serve over a bed of linguine.
Have you had Skyline Chili? I think I first read about it in Maxim, it sounds interesting though most decidedly a drunken-night food.
Beau, I've had the chili, but just the chili by itself. Interesting secret ingredient in it: cinnamon. If you use just a speck of cinnamon (it's powerful stuff), it can add a real interesting flavor. Give it a try next time you make chili...
ReplyDeleteCinnamon!? Intersting! I wonder how that would go with this homemade pasta sauce I've been wanting to try. That's a pretty cool bit of info, who thinks of cinnamon and chili?
ReplyDelete