Thursday, September 8, 2011

Inventing a recipe...

I had a quick look at the recipes on the Barilla pasta site from yesterdays post. I think there was one there for Sausage and Fennell spaghetti. I thought, I can probably whip up a sausage pasta of some sort. We have had roasted cherry tomato and balsamic pasta before so I just combined that with the sausages and added the old chestnut - basil - and 'voila'!
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These cherry tomatoes are not the best, sweetest or ripest for the job but it was all I could get. Imagine home grown, ripe, red ones! I oven roasted them for about 40 minutes at 200C. I also added a couple of cloves of garlic, sliced and drizzled the tomatoes with a little olive oil.
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This basil was a joke also! Just have a look at the huge, over grown leaf, compared to the size of the spice jar! Ridiculous! Basil should have young, small, glossy and tender leaves. Here comes a rant! We have a herb farm about 15kms from our town. They grow all manner of hydroponic herbs and sell to Woolworths. Our Woolworths does not get HollaFresh herbs - ours come from Sydney or Melbourne! How crazy is that???
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Anyhoo - I bought some 'cracked pepper and garlic' beef sausages (gourmet?) and snipped them up and tossed them in the fry pan.
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I got my pasta on boiling at this stage because it will come together quickly. Fry off the sausages with 2 shallots added.
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Quick and easy meatballs. When they are cooked, drain any excess fat from the pan.
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The tomatoes shrivel up but retain their juices.
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This is my favourite balsamic vinegar - I use it on any cold meat like most people use tomato sauce. I love the stuff!
Okay - drain the pasta - add it to the sausages, add in the tomatoes and garlic, toss in the torn basil leaves.
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Drizzle with a little olive oil, add cracked pepper and salt to taste and 1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar.
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Serve it up and grate some good parmesan cheese over the top (you could put a little bit through the pasta too). All in all, a very nice dish. I will hunt around for some tastier sausages next time but it's in my recipe file as a keeper. Cheap too!
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Cheers - Joolz

6 comments:

  1. Looks YUM Joolz! You are a very clever cook...

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  2. My goodness that looks yummy! It's late at night here, but I'm hungry all over again after reading through your post. Wonderful images make it almost jump off the screen. *sigh*

    Seriously, thanks for the recipe and directions. We do the same - use what is available - and come up with some pretty good meals. :) Very nice!

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  3. Hey gorgeous

    Will def try this one over this coming weekend! Plenty of fresh herbs, garlic, tasty toms and gourmet snags from our local farmers market - mmmm delish!


    Hugs

    Kimmie
    x

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  4. How easy is that to make...and looks yum!

    Hi Joolz, I have found your blog through Tania at Out Back.

    I look forward to reading through your recipes for some more yummy food and following your blog journey.

    Karen

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  5. I never make meatballs from scratch any more there so good aren't they. Cutting up gourmet sausages really is the go. Although I haven't got any in the garden at the moment in summer I have heaps of little cherry tomatoes. Love you recipes as usual joolz

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  6. This looks delicious! When are you off on holidays? The nights are colder again so I guess you are looking forward to some warmer weather!

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