Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Cauliflower

Baked pasta sounded good, sort of like lasagna but slightly easier. I'll admit it, lasagna looks a lot prettier when it's plated. The rigatoni looks like heart valves, which isn't exactly appetizing. If you can get past that, you'll find this pasta dish actually tastes pretty good. I really like the cauliflower and had a hard time stopping myself from eating all of it before it went into the dish.

Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Cauliflower
from Cooking Club
click to print

4 c cauliflower florets (1 inch) (1 medium head)
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. rigatoni (tube-shaped pasta)
4 c slightly packed spinach, coarsely chopped
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 (28-oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 c shredded Romano cheese (4 oz.)
2 c finely shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz.)

Heat oven to 425ºF.

Toss cauliflower and oil in large bowl to coat; place on large rimmed baking sheet.


Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; reduce oven temperature to 350ºF.

This cauliflower is delicious - make extra to snack on.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain; cool under running water. Drain well. Place in large bowl; toss with spinach.
 
Tossing the drained pasta with the spinach just meant the heavy pasta tended to settle to the bottom of the bowl while the fluffy spinach gradually migrated to the top.

Heat large deep skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Crumble sausage into skillet; cook 6 to 8 minutes or until browned, stirring frequently. Add rosemary and garlic; cook over medium heat 30 seconds or until fragrant, stirring constantly.

After 5 minutes, the sausage is nearly completely browned.

Stir in tomatoes, salt and pepper.


Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook 12 to 15 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened, stirring occasionally and adjusting heat as necessary.

My sauce was only slightly reduced after 30 minutes; I made the mistake of reducing the heat to a simmer once it reached boiling.

Coat 13x9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon in enough of the tomato sauce mixture to lightly coat bottom of dish.


Layer with half each of the pasta, cauliflower, tomato sauce and Romano cheese.


Sprinkle with generous 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese.


Repeat layers, ending with remaining mozzarella cheese. (Rigatoni can be made to this point 12 hours ahead; cover and refrigerate. Uncover; adding an extra 5 to 10 minutes to baking time.)


Bake at 350ºF. 40 to 45 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Remove from oven; cover loosely with foil. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.



Having forgotten that the spinach would leak moisture as the dish baked, I really wish I'd reduced my sauce further. You can see in the plated image that it was watery. If you try this, be sure to boil the sauce for 15 minutes and avoid the tendency to to reduce the heat once it reached a boil like I did. With all that extra moisture, the rigatoni on the bottom of the dish was quite flaccid. The texture of the rigatoni on top was certainly the opposite; some of them poking out of the sauce and cheese were crunchy. I kind of liked it.

I'm not sure what the point is of combining the rigatoni and spinach in a bowl. As said above, the heavy rigatoni sort of rolled to the bottom of the bowl while the fluffy spinach floated to the top. Otherwise, prep made sense, the dish came out to be tasty; the cauliflower alone is reason to do it again. For all the time and cost though, you may as well do lasagna!

Cost:

• cauliflower: $4.83
• extra-virgin olive oil: $0.09
• rigatoni: $2
• spinach: $1.69
• Italian sausage: $3.99
• fresh rosemary: $1
• garlic: $0.15
• diced tomatoes: $1.92
• Romano cheese: $3.59
• mozzarella cheese: $2

Total: $21.26 or about $2.66 for each of 8 servings.

Cornbread-Sausage Dressing

What Thanksgiving meal is complete without some sort of stuffing/dressing? This is the dressing recipe that accompanied the Honey-Roasted Turkey recipe I tried out on chicken recently. The only change I made to the recipe was substituting home-made chicken stock for the low-sodium chicken broth.

Cornbread-Sausage Dressing
adapted from Cooking Club
click to print

2 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 lb. bulk mild Italian sausage
1 tsp ground sage
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
Pinch crushed red pepper
1 1/2 c chicken stock
1 1/4 lb. cornbread, coarsely crumbled (8 cups)
2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Heat oven to 325°F.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat.


Stir in onion and celery. Cover; cook 5 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften, stirring occasionally.

My onion and pepper was cooked about 10 minutes before I moved on with the recipe.

Add sausage, sage, thyme, rosemary and crushed red pepper. Cook 4 to 6 minutes or until sausage is thoroughly cooked and no longer pink in center, stirring frequently.

After four minutes my sausage wasn't thoroughly cooked so I let it keep on going. It went another four minutes...

Add broth; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.


Remove from heat; stir in all remaining dressing ingredients.


Coat 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass or ceramic baking pan with cooking spray; spoon in dressing. (Dressing can be made 12 hours ahead; cover and refrigerate. Increase baking time 5 to 10 minutes.)


Bake dressing 40 to 45 minutes or until hot.



Tasty, but a little dry and salty. I'd cut the coarse sea salt at the end and give yourself the freedom to add more at the table if necessary. I'm a little surprised this dish turned out dry since I think I used a little less than the quantity of cornbread called for. But my cornbread has been sitting in the microwave uncovered since I made it. The edges were bone dry. That lack of moisture might have contributed.

I'd consider doing this again to use up some cornbread if I had extra. The other stuff is inexpensive; with the exception of the sausage, usually have everything else. Overall, it was alright but not one I'd consider stellar. Most exciting to me is that there's a recipe in the line-up which calls for leftovers of this particular dressing.

Cost:

• butter: $0.10
• onion: $0.31
• celery: $0.19
• bulk mild Italian sausage: $3.20
• chicken stock: $0.24
• cornbread: $1.17
• Italian parsley: $0.49

Total: $5.70 or about $0.71 for each of 8 servings

Italian Sausage and White Bean Stew

This is one of those that I wasn't sure would thrill me to death, but went with it for the sake of finding something that might just unexpectedly twang my thing. After all, I do like sausage and beans and peppers, so why wouldn't it work?

Going into the recipe I deviated by using one pound instead of 1.25 lbs of sausage.

Italian Sausage and White Bean Stew
from Cooking Club magazine Fall 2013
click to print

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb mild Italian sausage links, cut diagonally into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 c baby-cut carrots, thinly sliced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 (14-oz) cans cannellini beans, drained, rinsed
1 c lower-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add oil; heat until hot.


Cook sausage 5 to 7 minutes, turning occasionally to brown all sides.


Add bell pepper and carrots; cook 1 minute over medium heat, stirring frequently.


Add garlic; cook and stir 30 seconds or until fragrant.


Stir in all remaining ingredients; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.


Reduce heat to medium-low to low; simmer 15 minutes or until slightly thickened and sausage is thoroughly cooked and no longer pink in center.



Easy to prep, the execution of the dish took less than thirty minutes, yielding a hot, filling meal. The flavors went very well together and I liked the various textures. When reducing the liquid I simmered just a few minutes longer than 15 minutes to make it thicker than what most would probably prefer. Doing so, many of the beans split open and that gave even more texture variation.

Cutting the sausage quantity by a quarter pound didn't leave me thinking the sausage was lacking so pick a package with a flavor you like rather than buying something else because the package size fits. Not that long ago I would've gone that.

Cost:

• extra-virgin olive oil: $0.18
• mild Italian sausage links: $2.99
• red bell pepper: $1
• carrots: $0.50
• garlic cloves: $0.20
• cannellini beans: $2.58
• broth: $0.13
• fresh rosemary: $0.25

Total: $7.88 or about $1.97 for each of four servings.

Stater Bros. Mild Italian Sausage

I liked Stater Bros. Hot Italian Sausage so when I needed a mild one, I knew exactly where I had to go.

The ingredients are almost exactly the same as the Hot Italian except there's less water. And guessing, less hot spice. Still no corn syrup!


Stater Bros. New York Style Mild Italian Sausage available in the meat section at Stater's for $2.99/lb.