Dinner At My Place

I've finally gone grocery shopping (thank goodness!) and tonight, I made a full menu from my new Tyler Florence cookbook, Dinner At My Place. This book is separated into full 3-course menus for all sorts of occasions. The one I chose this time around is called Workin' Late.

Penne with spicy Italian sausage, cream, tomatoes, and peas

Bibb lettuce with tarragon vinaigrette

Sweet lemon ricotta with mixed berries and biscotti

Yes, I know...that sounds DELICIOUS! This menu had a lot of moving parts but as a whole, it was pretty easy to pull together, and while I chose to do it on a weekend, this could totally work for a weeknight meal! 

The first thing I did was get the salad components together since that was probably the easiest part. Whole Foods had NO tarragon today, but luckily, I had purchased a delicious lemon tarragon dressing the other day, which happened to include all the ingredients that the recipe asked for : dijon mustard, honey, lemon, olive oil, and tarragon. I added some shallots to the dressing and set it aside, so that I could dress my Bibb lettuce right before plating!

Once that was completed, I prepared my mise en place for the main course. I grabbed spicy Italian sausage links, dried penne, extra virgin olive oil, an onion, garlic cloves, a can of crushed tomatoes, basil, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, heavy whipping cream, blanched peas, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

First things first, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees, and put the sausage links in to cook for 15 minutes. I turned them about half way through, even though the recipe didn't specifically mention it, because I wanted them to be nice and evenly browned. Once those were finished, I sliced them on a diagonal so that each piece had a nice surface area for the sauce to grab on to.

I added two glugs of olive oil to a heavy pot, and heated it. Once warm, I threw in my chopped onions and garlic and allowed them to cook until translucent and fragrant. I added the tomatoes and basil, and allowed that mixture to simmer for 15 minutes. During that time, I was also boiling water for my dried penne.

When the 15 minutes was up, I poured the heavy cream into the sauce and stirred, allowing it to cook until it was rich and creamy. Look how the color changes too! (At this point, I also poured my penne into the boiling water I had going...timing is everything, people!)

I added the sausage, blanched peas, and Parmigiano-Reggiano to my sauce, and stirred, letting it cook a few more minutes to warm everything through evenly. I then set the stove to low, so that it would stay warm while I finished everything up (and waited for Matt to get home from his hockey game!) 

Finally, I put some ricotta, lemon zest and powdered sugar in the food processor and blended it together until fluffy. I hulled and sliced some strawberries, and put them in a pot with some raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. I squeezed the juice of one lemon over the mixed berries, and added a bit of powdered sugar. The acid of the lemon helps to macerate the berries over a low heat, for about 10 minutes.

For plating, I tossed the Bibb lettuce with the dressing and put it on the plates first. I then served a healthy portion of the pasta alongside it, garnished with a few basil leaves and a showering of parmesan. For dessert, I added a few spoonfuls of the lemon ricotta fluffiness to a ramekin and topped it with the macerated berries that I had cooked earlier, and allowed to cool. I stuck an almond biscotti into each ramekin and voila...YUM!