Sausage Pasta with Fennel and Chili

This is one of my favourite pasta dishes. It's bursting with so many different flavours. There's the anise you get from the fennel, heat from the chili flakes, sweetness from the cherry tomatoes, and the caramelization from the sausage. All these beautiful flavours are brought together into one dish with a touch of cream and then garnished with parsley. You can use pretty much any kind of pasta with this dish, but I recommend penne, fusilli, or shells so you get maximum sauce with each mouthful. I've made this many times and I think this is my yummiest version yet!

 What you'll need: fresh sausages, pasta (I ended up using mini shells instead of this one pictured here because Boyfriend said it looked like maggots...), parsley, cherry tomatoes

 What you'll need: fennel seeds, black pepper, oregano, chili flakes

Bash up the chili flakes and fennel seeds to release their flavours

Squeeze the sausages out of their skins and break them up in the pan.

Keep frying and breaking the meat up until it resembles mince.

Add the bashed-up fennel seeds and chili flakes and cook on a medium heat until the meat becomes crisp, golden brown and slightly caramelized. Take your time with this step. It is essential that the sausage is browned nicely (not burnt!) and has rendered most of its oil. That's how the deep flavours develop.

Add in cherry tomatoes, cooked pasta and a touch of cream. Mix until the sauce has thickened and coats the pasta evenly.

Garnish with chopped parsley.

Sausage Pasta with Fennel and Chili

For 2

Ingredients

1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 fresh Italian sausages
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup cream
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
150g pasta
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped

Method

1. Bash up the fennel seeds and the chili flakes in a pestle and mortar or in a seed grinder.
2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan on medium heat. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins onto the pan, breaking it up with a wooden spoon.
3. Fry for a few minutes until the meat starts to colour and the fat has rendered slightly. Break up the meat more until it resembles minced meat.
4. Add the fennel seeds and chili and cook on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until the meat becomes crisp, golden brown and slightly caramelized.
5. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package instructions until al dente. When done, drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta water.
6. Add in the oregano into the sausage, and pour in the white wine. Allow it to reduce a little.
7. Add the halved tomatoes and cream and cook until the tomatoes begin to soften, around 2 minutes. Season.
8. Add the cooked pasta and toss with the sausage mixture until the sauce has coated the pasta evenly. Add the reserved pasta water to loosened up the sauce if needed.
9. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's Proper Bloke's Sausage Fusilli

Creamy Crab Rigatoni

This is a simple yet decadent weeknight pasta dish that takes less than 30 minutes to make. I loved the chunks of creamy crab meat hiding inside the mezzi rigatoni (short rigatoni). However I must apologize for the quality of these photos. I left my camera at a friend's place so I had to use my phone. I tried my best to tinker with the editing on iPhoto, but the photos don't do this dish justice.

 Cook the garlic on low heat until fragrant.

Stir in the crab meat.

 If you don't want to, you don't have to peel them. But if you want a smoother sauce without bits of tomato skin floating around in it, it only takes a few minutes to do this step. I scored an X on top of each tomato and blanched them in boiling water for 30 seconds before peeling.

Add the stock and simmer on low heat until the tomatoes are soft.

After 15 minutes of simmering, the tomatoes have disintegrated into the sauce.

 Add the cream. Simmer for another minute.

 Add the cooked pasta and mix well. Turn up the heat to medium high to reduce and thicken the sauce.

Plate it up and add some shaved Pecorino. The salty cheese adds a nice sharpness. 

Recipe - adapted from here

For 2

Ingredients

150g tubular pasta, preferably rigatoni or penne
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can crab meat, around 150g
2 tomatoes, skins removed, roughly chopped
1 cup fish stock
100 ml cream
Salt
Pecorino, optional

Method

1. To remove the skins of the tomatoes, score an X on top of each tomato and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds. Peel back the skins when cool enough to handle.
2. Heat olive oil in pan and added the minced garlic. Cook on low.
3. When the garlic is fragrant, stir in the crab meat. Season with a pinch of salt.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and stock. Simmer on low heat until the tomatoes are soft and mushy.
5. While the tomatoes are simmering, cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain the pasta when it is one minute shy of al dente.
6. When the tomatoes are soft, add the cream and simmer for another minute.
7. Add the pasta and mix well. Turn up the heat to medium high to thicken and reduce the sauce.
8. Shave some Pecorino on top before serving, or alternatively, add chopped parsley.

Baked Caprese Crostinis

I'm about to board a plane to Barcelona! I'll be gone until the end of the month, but I will still post new recipes and reviews when I have time between Gaudi visits. After Barcelona I will be in France. Be sure to follow @christineatsss on Instagram for daily updates of the amazing food I'll be eating! I will now leave you with this easy yet delicious canape that you can whip up in no time. 

Recipe

Makes 8 crostinis

Ingredients

8 thin baguette slices

1 garlic clove

1 medium ball of mozzarella, cut into 8 slices

8 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

Torn basil leaves

Kosher salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to broil. I used my toaster oven!
2. Cut the garlic in half and rub the cut side lightly on one side of each baguette slice. Drizzle the baguettes with olive oil.
3. Layer the tomato, mozzarella and basil.
4. Sprinkle salt and pepper, then drizzle with more olive oil.
5. Bake for a few minutes until the cheese has melted.

Roasted Whole Artichokes

The first time I ate fresh artichokes (not the tangy marinated kind) was in Rome. We had artichoke hearts (boiled or steamed, slathered in olive oil) almost everyday. Restaurants in Hong Kong usually serve the hearts, either boiled, steamed, or marinated. I've only been to one place that served the artichoke whole. I loved peeling off the leaves and dipping them in mayo before scraping the "meat" off with my teeth. So when I came across this recipe, I couldn't wait to try it out! Roasting it gave it a more robust and deep flavour as opposed to just boiling or steaming. I didn't even have to dip the leaves in the garlic aioli that I bought especially for this dish! The only downside was the time. These babies took an hour in the oven. I would suggest getting them in the oven first before making the rest of your meal. 

Wash the artichoke under cold running water.

Cut off 1/3 of the top, and chop the stem off so the artichoke can sit upright. Boyfriend helped me with this because I have no upper arm strength at all.

Push apart the leaves as best as you can, and wedge in the garlic. Squeeze 1/2 lemon per artichoke and drizzle olive oil generously.

Wrap the artichokes tightly in tin foil and put them into the oven.

The artichokes will come out perfectly seasoned by the salt, lemon and garlic. Even the heart was flavourful! No mayo needed.

Recipe - adapted from Pinch My Salt

For 2

Ingredients

2 medium artichokes
Olive oil
Kosher salt
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 lemon

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 425 F / 220 C. Slice off the top third of the artichoke with a sharp knife. Then cut off the stem at the base of the artichoke.
2. Drizzle a large piece of tin foil with a few drops of olive oil. Place one artichoke in the middle of the foil and open up the leaves. 
3. Wedge 3 garlic cloves into the artichoke. Sprinkle kosher salt and squeeze 1/2 a lemon onto the artichoke. Drizzle olive oil generously over the top.
4. Wrap the foil up around the artichoke, sealing it well. Put in the oven for an hour.
5. After removing from the oven, let artichokes sit until cool enough to handle before unwrapping.

Grilled Sardines and Tuscan Bread Salad Part 2

This is the perfect summer salad and a great accompaniment to the grilled sardines. Panzanella is a Tuscan salad made with crusty bread and tomatoes. The addition of feta and roasted red peppers gives it a Mediterranean flair. The original recipe called for anchovies in the dressing, but I didn't have any on hand so I just added a tiny bit of sea salt. The dressing came out perfect. I really liked this salad because it was super easy to make and very delicious. The sweet cherry tomatoes went well with the fragrant basil/balsamic dressing, and the creamy tangy feta was a boost of flavour. The only thing I didn't like was how the toasted ciabatta absorbed the sauce quickly and became soggy. When I make this salad again, I will be sure to add the ciabatta last. Enjoy!

Oops the pancetta was for the sardines, but here are the main components for this salad: feta, roasted red peppers, capers, cherry tomatoes and ciabatta. 

Blend together a clove of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, spring onion, basil and 3-4 cherry tomatoes. The original recipe used 1 cup of cherry tomatoes, but it was such a waste of the beautiful tomatoes, so I used only 3. It was enough to create a dressing-like consistency. 

I followed the original recipe and added the toasted ciabatta before the tomatoes. The bread absorbed a lot of the sauce and became soggy real fast. I have altered the recipe below to reflect this.

Recipe - adapted from Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals 

For 2

Ingredients

½ small ciabatta loaf

1 clove garlic

extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 cups mixed color cherry tomatoes, halved

½ bunch spring onion, ends trimmed

½ bunch fresh basil

1 tablespoon capers

1 cup jarred roasted red peppers, cut into 1-inch chunks

Handful feta cheese

Method

1. Cut the ciabatta into 1 inch thick slices and toast them on both sides on a pan.
2. Peel the garlic and put into a blender or food processor with 1 tablespoon olive oil, balsamic, 3-4 cherry tomatoes, spring onions and basil. Blend until it becomes smooth. Pour into a large serving bowl.
3. Halve the remaining tomatoes and add to the bowl, along with the capers and peppers. Toss.
4. Tear the toasted ciabatta into thumb-sized pieces into the bowl and toss once only to coat. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of olive oil to finish.
5. Garnish with torn basil leaves and feta.
6. Serve immediately with the grilled sardines.