Never trust a cookbook with the word “skinny” on the cover.
I was so excited to open up a real-life cookbook this week, thumb through the pages, and pick out my favorite recipe in the book to try. And yet, the physical, hardback book betrayed me.
My father gave me this seven-ingredient cookbook for my birthday a few weeks ago.
It was a thoughtful gift, I assure you. He knows I try out recipes every week for my food column, and he knows I like simple recipes. He also knows that I’ve been trying to find healthier options for Hunter and I to eat.
As I flipped through the pages, I found a few recipes that seemed really promising. I picked out this recipe for this week, a chicken sausage pasta that seemed to have potential. Making pasta sauce myself seemed like it would be more exciting than buying it from the jar, and chicken sausage was a different version of protein than we usually eat.
But as I cooked through the recipe, I noticed a few things.
First, with the limited number of ingredients, for simplicity’s sake, the recipe seemed to have just forgotten that seasonings exist. And yes, I understand that some people need to avoid eating too much salt or too many calories. But I need F-L-A-V-O-R, or the dish isn’t going to get eaten.
Maybe that’s why healthy recipes are under seasoned. The less flavor, the less you eat.
Thankfully, I’ve cooked pasta enough times in my life to know what needed to happen to fix it. A few shakes of pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning later, I had the sauce fixed up to be edible.
I wanted better than edible. It needed just one more thing to tie everything together.
The original recipe optionally recommended adding a scoop of ricotta to the sauce to make it creamier. I had not purchased ricotta, in an effort to try the recipe as written.
But when I saw the still-runny sauce and the uncoated pasta, I knew something had to be done. I broke out the Greek yogurt from our refrigerator, tossed it in with the pasta, and went from there. Soon after, my husband and I were enjoying our bowls.
I guess by adding the extra seasonings and ingredients, you may say I’ve broken the spirit of this recipe, or that it’s not what the original writer intended. And maybe I have.
But I don’t serve bland food. I won’t do it. Not until I’m old and gray and my doctor tells me I have to cut back on joy. And I still may not, even then. I’ll portion out my own saltless bowl of pasta, and then throw more cheese and salt into it for the rest of my family.
I didn’t know I had such strong feelings about non-delicious food until I started writing this column, but apparently, I’ll be going to the grave with my seasonings in my hands. And I won’t have “skinny” on my tombstone, either.
CHICKEN SAUSAGE PASTA
Ingredients
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
12 ounces Italian chicken sausage links, casings removed
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced (or more, if you’re like me and wants some extra flavor)
8 ounces regular or gluten-free short pasta, like penne rigate or rigatoni
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, large leaves torn
1/4 cup ricotta (or Greek yogurt, if you want a substitution. Trust me, you want some form of dairy)
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and garlic powder, to taste
Directions
■ Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and drain tomatoes, reserving the liquid. Lightly press the whole tomatoes, also draining any excess liquid through sieve into bowl. Roughly chop tomatoes. Then, pour the liquid in a measuring cup and add water until liquid totals 2 1/2 cups.
■ Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil. Allow oil to heat, then crumble in the sausage. Cook, breaking the sausage into small pieces with a wooden spoon, or until sausage is browned and cooked through, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
■ Add the tomatoes and reserved liquid. Season with salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce to medium-low and cover. Allow the sauce to simmer steadily for about 10 minutes. in a separate pot, cook the pasta according to package directions. Once it is cooked, drain the pasta, and add it to the simmering sauce.
■ Allow the sauce and pasta to cook together for another few minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated and been absorbed. Remove from the heat and stir in Parmesan cheese and basil, allowing to cook until basil begins to wilt. Serve immediately with more Parmesan and basil on top.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 28 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
