Sausage and Mushroom Whole-Wheat Penne Gratin

I feel like my posts have been getting awfully healthy lately so to prove I’m not turning into a goody two-shoes, here you go:  a recipe made with sausage, mozzarella, parmesan, and heavy cream.  How’s that for decadent ingredients?  But then again, maybe I am a goody two-shoes because I swapped out the semolina pasta for whole-wheat and added arugula to give it a little more nutrition and a bit of color (once a food stylist, always a food stylist…).  I have to say, the extra calories were well worth it – this pasta was de-lish!  Really, really tasty and perfect for the kind of weather we have been experiencing in the Northeast, i.e. cold and snowy.

Sausage and Mushroom Penne Gratin
Adapted from Gourmet

Whole-wheat pasta is gaining in popularity but the problem remains that an awful lot of what’s out there is just that – awful.  I know this because I feel like I’ve bought and tasted each and every bland, heavy one!  After reading Melissa Clark’s piece on whole-wheat pasta in the Times, I took her advice and tried Bionaturae, an organic line of pastas made in Italy and available at my local grocery store.
  

Their penne was just as she described - warm and nutty.  When whole-wheat pasta is good it’s perfect in a stick-to-your-ribs dish such as this one - hearty enough to stand up to the other ingredients and rich without weighing it down. 

As a Flying Pigs Farm Camp alumna I’m partial to their heritage pork products.  There’s something about seeing first hand how a farmer raises their livestock and what breeds they choose and why that creates a loyalty that is tough to break.  I headed to their stand at Union Square for hot sausage but sweet sausage is fine in this recipe as well; it’s simply a matter of preference.

The North Fork’s Satur Farms continues to amaze me with the quality of their greens.  When I saw this box of wild arugula, which was grown on their farmland in Florida (see here for more back story), I couldn’t believe how perky and pristine the leaves looked.  Wild arugula is the original variety of arugula grown in Europe for generations.  No doubt the leaves in my box came from seeds found on one of Eberhard Muller and Paulette Satur’s European buying trips.  Wild arugula may look petite and refined but its peppery taste really packs a delightful punch.  

If there were any doubts about my devotion to Milk Thistle Farm Jersey cow dairy products, this bottle of heavy cream sealed the deal.  Just look at what I found when I opened their bottle of heavy cream.

Because there were several inches of thick cream on top, shaking the bottle wouldn’t do; I had to stir the cream before I could pour it out.  It was heaven.  Jersey cows rule – or at least their milk does!

1 pound dried whole-wheat pasta
1 pound hot Italian sausage, casings removed if using links
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
4 cups arugula or spinach
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
8 ounces grated whole-milk mozzarella, divided

Cook penne in pot of boiling salted water until al dente.  Reserve ½ cup pasta-cooking water, drain pasta and set aside.    

Preheat broiler with rack positioned 3 – 4 inches from heat. 

Meanwhile, in a 12-inch sauté pan, sauté sausage in 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat until no longer pink, stirring occasionally and breaking up any large pieces. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving fat in pan.

Add remaining tablespoon of oil to pan, along with mushrooms and garlic and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are golden, about 3 minutes.  Add arugula to pan, stirring until wilted, about 1 minute more.

Return sausage to pan along with cream, reserved ½ cup cooking water, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ fresh black pepper and boil over high heat, stirring once or twice, until thickened, about 4 minutes.  Stir in pasta, Parmigiano-Reggiano, ½ cup mozzarella, and salt to taste.  Transfer pasta mixture into 3-quart baking dish and top evenly with remaining mozzarella. 

Broil until golden brown in spots, 4 – 5 minutes.

Serves 4 – 6 people

Peach Blueberry Cake for the Birthday Girl

I swear I know how to make more than just fruit cakes! But it’s summer and there was another birthday in the office…. This time it was Liljana’s, my co-worker and dear friend. She is Albanian and a born locavore, as might be expected from a European who grew up in a Mediterranean climate. I find her stories about family members who never ate food that came out of a box or a bag, drank their fair share of homemade wine, and lived to a ripe old age (108 for Grandpa!) telling. I think I know the reason for their longevity and it’s not because there’s something in the water….

Speaking of boxes and bags, when Liljana and her husband, Alex, moved to New York City and started a family, she did what the majority of Americans do; shopped for food in a grocery store. But as someone accustomed to ultra fresh, highly flavorful ingredients, to say she was underwhelmed by the rows and rows of processed, preserved, and grown-for-transport food she found at Food Emporium and Gristedes would be an understatement.

Once Liljana realized I was a nut about good food, too, we started comparing notes on better shopping options and the Greenmarket came up immediately. Lucky for her there is an easy alternative close to her apartment on the Upper West Side. The Sunday Greenmarket alongside the American Museum of Natural History (Columbus Avenue and West 77th Street) has plenty of fresh produce, homemade breads, eggs, meat, fish, and the most delicious organic milk in the world from Milk Thistle Farm. In fact, the first time she had their milk she flipped. “It tastes just like what I drink in Albania!” Coming from her, that’s something.

Peach Blueberry Cake
Adapted from Gourmet August 2005

This cake is ALL about the fruit, especially the peaches. Every bite is pure peach. Be sure to use the freshest fruit you can find. A couple of farm stands I frequent offer bags of “soft” peaches which are usually less expensive and, while not the best for eating out of hand, are perfectly fine for baking. I picked up Jersey yellow peaches and blueberries over the weekend from Malanga’s farm stand in Warren, New Jersey. To the recipe below I added 2 extra peaches and my cup of blueberries was heaping.

For Pastry
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

For Filling
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons AP flour
1 tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca
2 pounds firm-ripe large peaches (about 4), halved lengthwise, pitted, and each half cut lengthwise into fourths (see headnote)
1 cup blueberries (1/2 pint) (see headnote)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Special equipment: 9 – 9 ½” (24 cm) light-colored springform pan, an electric coffee/spice grinder

Make Pastry
Pulse together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add egg and vanilla and pulse just until dough clumps and begins to form a ball, about 15 pulses.

Press dough onto bottom and evenly (about ¼” thick) all the way up side of springform pan with floured fingertips. Chill pastry in pan until firm, about 10 minutes.

Make filling while pastry chills:
Put oven rack in middle position of oven and preheat oven to 375°.

Grind 2 tablespoons sugar with flour and tapioca in grinder until tapioca is powdery, then transfer to a large bowl and stir in remaining 6 tablespoons sugar. Add peaches, blueberries, and lemon juice and gently toss to coat. Spoon filling into pastry and bake, loosely covered with a sheet of foil, until filling is bubbling in center and crust is golden, about 1 ¾ hours (my cake stayed in almost 2 ¼ hours before the center started to bubble).

Transfer cake in pan to a rack and cool, uncovered, 20 minutes, then carefully remove side of pan. Cool cake to barely warm or room temperature, then cut into thick wedges with a sharp knife before serving.

NOTE
Pastry may be made and pressed into pan 1 day ahead and chilled, wrapped well in plastic wrap. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before filling.

Serves 8