Baked pasta with sausage, sage and butternut

Tags

bechamel sauce, butternut, Cheese, comfort food, gratin, Pasta, sausages, toulouse sausages

This dish is pure comfort food at its very best. It combines all of my favorite comfort foods, pasta, bechamel sauce, sausages and cheese and is cooked like a gratin thereby giving a delicious crusty, cheesy topping. What more could you want? It is inspired from a northern Italian recipe. In the original version, large pasta shells or conchiglioni are used and the sausage stuffing in placed in the shells but if you cannot get hold of them, feel free to use any large pasta such as penne, cavatappi, fusilli, rigatoni or even rotini.

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeds discarded, chopped into small cubes
2 teaspoons olive oil
10 sage leaves, chopped
6 pork sausages (I used Toulouse sausages)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
350g / 12oz pasta
50g / 2oz butter
50g / 2oz plain flour
850ml / 1 ½ pints milk
50g / 2oz parmesan, grated
100g / 4oz grated cheese (emmental, mozzarella mix)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F
Place the butternut in a saucepan with a little water and cook for about 10 minutes until soft
Heat the oil in a frying pan
Add the sage leaves and sizzle for about 1 minute
Remove the sausages from their skins and divide into small balls about the size of a marble or hazelnut
Add the sausage balls to the pan and fry until golden brown
Add half the butternut to the sausage mixture and set aside
Mash the remaining butternut with the nutmeg and any liquid in the pan
Cook the pasta according to package instructions
Melt the butter in a saucepan
Add the flour and stir, cook for 1 to 2 minutes
Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly
Cook for 2 to 3 minutes over medium low heat until you have a smooth, thick sauce
Add the mashed butternut, parmesan and seasoning
Spread the sauce and butternut mixture on the bottom of a large, shallow baking dish
Drain the pasta
Place the pasta on top of the sauce
Pour the sausage and sage mixture over the pasta
Scatter the grated cheeses over all
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown
Enjoy!

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Gratin Dauphinois / Potatoes with cream

Tags

Cheese, cream, gratin, potatoes

After pommes frites (french fries), this is without a doubt the most famous potato dish in France. There are now many variations and additions to the original recipe but this is the classic. There is even quite some debate as to whether it should include cheese or not. Many purists claim that the traditional gratin dauphinois does not and should not include any cheese. Although anglophones tend to think of gratin to mean cheese, this is in fact not the case, and a gratin simply means a dish that is baked in the oven with cream. It is the cream that forms the nice brown crust on the top. So, I am not including cheese in my original recipe but do see the notes below. A gratin should be eaten as soon as it comes out the oven as it loses its creaminess and can become dry or even worse, almost watery and oily if reheated.
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 to 2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
1 kg / 2 lbs russet or bintje potatoes
Freshly grated nutmeg, about 1/2 teaspoon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
375 ml / 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 175 C / 350 F
Thoroughly rub the inside of a of gratin dish, (about 6-cups / 1 1/2 L) with the garlic cloves
Generously butter the dish
Peel the potatoes and cut them into very thin rounds
Arrange the potato slices in slightly overlapping rows in the dish
Sprinkle each layer with nutmeg, salt and pepper
Place the heavy cream in a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer over low heat
Pour the cream over the potatoes, making sure they are completely covered with the liquid
If you do not have enough cream to cover, add a bit of warm milk (you want the cream to just peek out of the edges of the pan)
Bake, uncovered for about 45 to 60 minutes until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork
Allow to sit for a few minutes
Serve hot, straight from the gratin dish
Enjoy!

NOTE: variations
Cheese: add 1 cup emmental or gruyère to the top before baking
Blue cheese: add some blue cheese, roquefort, forme d’ambert to the cream before you heat it
Sweet potatoes / yams: add 1 or several in place of the russet
Spinach / chard / kale: sauté in a bit of butter and add to the dish
Onions: sauté and add
Mushrooms: sauté and add
Bacon: sauté and add
Celeriac: peel, slice into thin rounds and boil for 10 minutes in water then layer with potatoes

Gratin d’épinards au chèvre / Spinach and goat cheese gratin

Tags

appetizer, chevre, goat cheese, gratin, spinach

The combination of goat cheese and spinach is one of those perfect marriages, this will please old and young alike. A gratin to serve equally to family on a weeknight as to friends at a fancy dinner. I like to serve this in individual ramekins, it is the right serving size and looks very pretty on the plate. This can also be served as an appetizer or a main course if you are vegetarian or feel like a meat free meal.
For most of my life, I would not touch spinach – not in any variation or form, no matter how it was prepared – spinach was not considered an edible vegetable by me. It was something to serve to others who might like it (what an odd idea, but some people are strange) but definitely not for me. Well, luckily that all changed a few years ago. I bought some pre-washed and packaged salad (or so I thought) to use for dinner, only to arrive home and realize I had bought baby spinach instead. Horrors! I had guests arriving in less than an hour and no time to go back to Whole Foods, so I made a nice vinaigrette, added some lardons, nuts and soft poached eggs and served that and to my surprise, I loved it. It was like the Berlin wall coming down in my food experiences. I started eating raw spinach often but the cooked variety still was a no-no. Next was gently sautéed baby spinach, now the cooked spinach was deemed ok by me. Bit by bit. But, I must admit that until I had this dish as a starter in a local restaurant, real, adult, cooked spinach was still something I was not keen on. This little dish changed my whole perception. Now, I am not claiming that tomorrow I will be able to eat a bowl of steamed spinach, but for now, I love the taste of spinach and goat cheese. It really is a classic and amazing flavour combination. So, if you are like me, and think spinach is not for you (and I know there are a lot of you out there), do give this a try and you never know, you just might discover a new favourite dish.

Makes 4 individual gratins

Ingredients:

800 g / 28 oz  fresh spinach (you can use frozen)
400 ml / 13 oz milk
3 eggs
4 individual goat cheeses or 1/2 a log
1 garlic clove, crushed
15 g / 1/2 tablespoon butter
Pinch of nutmeg
1 tablespoon cornstarch (Maizena)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 210 C / 420 F
Wash the spinach and dry well on paper towels
Chop roughly
Melt the butter over medium high heat and sauté the chopped leaves for 10 minutes
Strain the spinach well to remove all traces of liquid
In a bowl, mix the cornstarch with a little milk
In another bowl, whisk the eggs
Add the cornstarch mixture to the eggs
Pour in the rest of the milk
Season and add the nutmeg and the crushed garlic
Add the well drained and cooked spinach and mix
Cut the goat cheese into smallish pieces and add to the spinach mixture
Divide the mixture between the ramekins
Bake for about 25 minutes
Serve hot
Enjoy!