Rustic Potato Soup!!

  Winter is officially upon us. There hasn't been any snow here yet but I can smell it in the air. The nights are getting colder and colder and it makes me want to cuddle up on the couch under a blanket with a big bowl of hot soup. I was sitting in my living room working on some ideas for future blog posts and realized I needed to run to the store so I could have dinner ready by the time my husband got home. It was cold and rainy outside so I knew some sort of soup was a must. I kept going back to potato soup but that just wasn't enough. I needed something new. Tonight I had to invent my very own potato soup. What I came up with literally blew our socks off. We ended up eating our leftovers the next day and were stilling craving more!! It's THAT good!!! It's one of the best soups I have ever came up with. 

So if you love potato soup or need something to take the chill away then keep-on-a-readin! 

   Here's what you'll need:

* 1 1/4 pounds spicy or sweet Italian sausage ( I used spicy of course! )

* One large carrot

* One medium yellow onion

* 6-7 medium potatoes 

* 3-4 cloves garlic

* 2 TBSP butter

* 4-5 TBSP flour

* A quart of chicken stock (about 4 cups) 

* 1 cup mozzarella/provolone mix (or just your favorite cheese) 

* 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

* tsp of ground thyme (or fresh) 

* Salt and pepper 

* Extra Virgin Olive Oil ( a couple TBSP )

   Start off by adding a couple TBSP olive oil and browning your sausage in a large stock pot. (On about medium-high) Make sure you get your sausage browned to where you cook off most of the fat/oil. There will still be some in the pan and you'll need it for the roux to thicken the soup. Add your carrot, onion and garlic and cook until softened. (You'll turn the heat down a bit so you don't burn the garlic. Medium-low should be good. Just watch your garlic.) Season with salt and pepper. Now chop your potatoes into bite sized pieces and cook an additional 3-5 minutes. Make sure you are stirring frequently. 

You can peel your potatoes if you want. I like them with the peel on. Also I think russet potatoes work the best in this soup. They keep their shape without turning to complete mush. Of course if you prefer another type of potato or if a different kind is on sale use those! 

   Now melt in your butter. Sprinkle in half your flour and mix then add the rest of your flour and mix making sure everything is coated. Stir in your chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add your thyme. Stir until thickened. It should come out to a gravy-like consistency. 

   At this point let it simmer for 10-15 minutes to cook your potatoes through. I don't blend any of this soup together. I love that it was chunky and thickening it gives it the perfect consistency. 

   After your potatoes are cooked through you will turn your heat to low and add your heavy cream. Start with a cup and taste from there. I used the whole cup and a half. (We love it creamy) heat through on low and right before serving melt in your cheese. Now test your seasonings (salt) and add any if needed. 

 Make sure you are stirring constantly. Even though your heat should be on low you don't want to scald the cream to the bottom of your pot. Your soup will taste burnt and be ruined. Ew! 

    This soup is so amazing you won't believe how fast and easy this recipe is. 

With it getting to temperatures below freezing this week this recipe is a must. You will be putting this in your chilly night recipes forever! 

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Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Pasta!

   Ok guys get ready to be excited about this one! This is probably one of the better pasta dishes I've ever made. It takes a little more effort and time then my usual pastas but it is so worth it. Also this recipe being pretty budget friendly helps!  The time consuming part is your onions. Once your onions are carmelized and your garlic is roasted it comes together within a matter of minutes. Let's just jump right to it.  

 

   You want to start off making your turkey "sausage". You can use chicken or pork but I chose turkey. Use the ground turkey with white and dark meat in it. For the BEST results make this the night before so you can give all the flavors time to combine. I made it before I started making everything else and just stuck it into the fridge until I needed it. It came out just fine! Ok so in a pound to a pound and a quarter of ground turkey add:

3 cloves grated or chopped garlic

A few stems of rosemary (2-3 Tbsp)

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 1/2 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp fennel seed 

Sea salt and pepper

A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil 

Side note: I always chop up my fennel seeds a bit because my husband doesn't like biting down on them.

Mix this up to make sure everything is distributed evenly throughout the turkey. Stick in the fridge covered until ready to use.

   Ok now I'm going to warn you that the rest of the recipe doesn't have the most visually appealing colors. :) 

It doesn't matter because it delicious!! 

  Now it's time to preheat your oven to 400 degrees. This is for roasting your garlic. 

I am using two heads of garlic. When you roast garlic it turns into this wonderful sweet flavor. So two heads isn't going to be overly garlicky tasting. It's a completely different flavor when it's roasted. 

Cut the tops of the bulbs off to expose most of the cloves. You can discard the top half. Place them separately on a small piece of foil. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Wrap them up in your foil and roast for 40-45 minutes. While those are roasting you will carmelize your onions. 

     So while your garlic is roasting slice up two large onions. It will look like a ton of onions but they will cook way down and develop yet another amazing sweet flavor. 

 

   To a deep skillet on medium heat melt a few pats of butter and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Let it come to a tiny simmer and add your onions and knock your heat to medium low. You might have to adjust your heat up and down. You don't want to cook your onions to quickly or burn them. They need a little time to develop that sweet delicious flavor. 

   Now toss all your onions around so they are coated in your butter and oil. Add just a pinch of sea salt and a scant teaspoon of sugar. Toss that around and cook your onions low and slow stirring occasionally. Don't let them brown. They will turn a brown color but you don't want browned (burnt) edges. Give it time. Mine took a little longer than my roasted garlic. 

 

   Ok fine I'll admit it I browned a few edges!! It's only my second time carmelizing onions ( the first being a complete fail ) so I was proud of how they turned out and hey it was still delicious!! At least they weren't burnt right?

(Oh and by the way I added a little fresh thyme to my onions. I had some In the fridge and decided to throw it in but it's completely optional.)

 

   Ok now that I got that off my chest it's time to deglaze your onions with about a half cup of dry white wine. Or any white wine for that matter. Any kind you prefer. Let that reduce some until it thickens up. 

   Now you've probably pulled your garlic bulbs out of the oven and opened the foil to let them cool. Make sure they are cool enough to handle because you are going to turn the bulb upside down and squeeze that deliciousness out. 90 percent of the time I do it while it's still a tad to hot so be careful. You will have a nice little pile of roasted garlic when you are done. 

 

   About now you can make sure the water for your pasta is working on boiling. 

Start to brown up your turkey "sausage". While your sausage is browning up add your onions and roasted garlic to a bowl. Add in about 1 1/2 cups chicken stock. Use your hand blender (immersion blender) to purée it up until it is nice and smooth. 

Have you noticed I use my immersion blender a lot? I absolutely love that thing. I was at kohls one day with my nana and she asked me if I needed one. I said yes because I really wanted to start making my own salad dressings at the time. She ended up buying me one that day and the rest is history.

Now I use it for SO MANY things it's crazy. I don't know how I ever lived without it. You can pick them up pretty cheap too. I've seen cute colorful ones at Gordmans for like 10 bucks!!! If you don't have one definitely go pick one up. You won't regret it! 

   Ok back to the food. Your puréeing your onions, garlic and chicken stock. 

Yum! 

Hey make sure you've dropped your pound of rigatoni into your salted boiling water. 

  When your sausage is browned up add your garlic and onion mixture to it along with about 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream. ( half and half works too )

   Stir this around without simmering it. You don't want this on to high of heat. Your milk could separate. Now add a good amount of Parmesan cheese!! 

   Stir this up until your cheese is all melted into the sauce. 

Drain your pasta and add the sauce to it and toss vigorously to combine. 

 

   Ok my mouth is watering! This pasta to SO good!!! A little time consuming with the onions and garlic but so worth it in the end. You have that delicious sweetness from your onions and roasted garlic with a little bit of spice in the background from your sausage. 

Everything balances out perfect. I will be making this again soon. ( I will let you know how my onions turn out next time. ;) ) 

  I really think you guys will enjoy this dish. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog! 

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Spicy Italian Sausage Fettuccine!!

Ok so I realized the lighting in my pictures are awful. I'll try and so something about that soon.
Today I'm going to show you a recipe I make that my papa gave to me. It is SO delicious!!
(Remember to season your food with salt and pepper always. Season as you go and taste until you think it's perfect. In this recipe don't season until you've added at least the heavy cream to the dish. The sausage will be salty so you could easily over season it.)

Here's what you need:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp fennel seed
1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
2 Tbsp crushed red pepper ( we like it spicy!!)
1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 red onion, chopped
2-4 large cloves of garlic (we love garlic so I added 4)
1-1.25 lb spicy Italian Sausage
1 1/4 cup whipping cream
2 cans diced tomatoes in juice
1 Tbsp dried or fresh sage. (Optional)
1 lb pound Fettuccine
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

My husband and I live near St. Louis and yesterday we went up to a place called The Hill. It has AMAZING Italian restaurants, bakeries and Italian grocery stores. We went into this grocery store we love called Vivianno's and bought some of their fresh (dried) fettuccine noodles. It comes in a 5 lb bag and is priced really well! As I'm walking around the store I see their cheese section. They will just cut you any size you'd like and I decided on the Parmesan. Now I've always bought my wedges of parm at the regular grocery store and I love it. Well they had parm that was 8.99 per lb and 18.99 per lb. I decided to get the more expensive imported one. I told her to cut me about 8-9 bucks worth and then she cut us off a piece of each kind to compare them. HOLY CRAP!! It's a night and day difference, the imported one was so good!! Of course I won't buy that all the time but at least I know where to go to get amazing cheeses.
Anyway since I had bought the fettuccine and that amazing Parmesan I decided to make a fettuccine and remembered the recipe my papa had given me. This recipe isn't how I usually make my fettuccine sauce and this one has tomatoes in it. I will show you my fettuccine sauce soon.

I start out with a little bit of olive oil in the pan and add the crushed red pepper to it. Heat that a little while so the red pepper flakes flavor the oil. When your oil is nice and hot add your hot Italian sausage. Let the bottom brown up real nice before you start and crumble it up. I use a potato masher to crumble it up. That makes it much more easy to get smaller chunks. And it's faster!

After the meat is browned and cooked through add your fennel seeds, chili powder and Italian seasonings. (I even added a little more red pepper flake. We LOVE spicy!) Add your dried sage if you have it. If you have fresh wait until later. Mix that up and add your sliced up onion and garlic. I grate my garlic in. It's much easier than chopping it up.
Side note: if you don't have fennel seed and you don't feel like running to the store don't worry about it! Your sausage should have fennel in it.

After your onions and garlic have softened add your heavy cream. If you don't have heavy cream add half and half. Heavy cream will make your sauce thicker and creamier though. Let that simmer low for about 5 mins. This helps it thicken.

Now add your diced tomatoes and simmer low for another 15-20 mins. While that is simmering cook your pasta. Make sure you don't over cook it and make it soggy! Cook it until its al dente. Which means it still has some bite to it. Not crunch, bite! :)

Reserve about 1/2 to 1 cup of your starchy cooking liquid from the pasta. Only use this if you don't have quite enough sauce and your pasta seems to dry. You probably won't need it but just in case you'll have it.

A minute or two before you drain the pasta chop up your fresh sage and add it to your sauce.

Drain pasta and put it back into the pot you boiled it in. Add your sauce to it and toss it vigorously for about a minute. This helps coat all the pasta and it also helps the pasta soak a little of that sauce in. Since you cooked your pasta to al dente it can continue to cook a little so it draws some of that hot sauce in.

You can add your Parmesan before or after you toss the sauce with the pasta. Just make sure it's well incorporated.
You can use pre-shaved Parmesan and even the grated Parmesan that comes in the plastic can. I usually buy a wedge and grate it in myself. I feel like I get more out of it that way. (Maybe not. But it feels like it) :) Also if you have the crushed garlic out of the jar that's fine too!!

Now just serve in a bowl and top with some more freshly shaved parm.
We usually serve it with some buttered bread. Yum!

Another thing I wanted to add was that if your family doesn't like spicy you can still make this!!! Just use a sweet Italian sausage and omit the red pepper flakes! It is still just as delicious and full of flavor!! :)

I make this recipe a tad different than my papa. Remember you can make any recipe your own and to your family's liking/needs. He adds some dry basil which I didn't have and he adds a splash of dry red wine to the sauce. We don't drink wine so I didn't have any. I do use wine to cook but normally it's a white wine and I didn't want to go buy any red for just a splash. But by all means add it if you have it!!
I hope you guys enjoy!