We are still in Southern France – and sometimes I reinvent a recipe from my blog.
This time … Do you imagine that in Southern France there are lots of types of frying sausages? Honestly, I was surprised at the variety. There are thin sausages, thick sausages, short & longer than a meter … also gentle seasoned as well as really hot – and all spicy variations in between.
So we often bought some sausages … & I remembered a recipe on my blog. It came from an Italian cookbook about tomato sausages accompanied by some pasta. I started w/ the recipe on my blog … made some adjustments, but basically it worked.
Now for a start – the original recipe from my blog!
We won’t need so many ingredients:
- salsicce
- carrots, celery & onion
- canned tomato pulp
- fresh thyme from my window sill.
… and pasta – big rigatoni!
The preparation is easy …
Just:
- cut the salsicce into pieces (not too small!)
- clean, trim & chop the vegetables.
I started w/ frying the vegetables in some olive oil & took care not to burn the mix.
I plucked the thyme leaves (about 2 tbsp). Once the vegetables were soft I added the thyme leaves.
I prepared the tomato pulp by adding a pinch of sugar, a pinch of ground chili & 2 cloves.
Then the salsicce are browned …
Finally everything ends up in a pot. Bring it to a boil … as soon as the tomato pulp starts bubbling reduce the heat to simmering … & let it simmer for about 2 h.
Ready.
Back to the recipe in the cookbook:
The recipe was for 6 persons based on 1.200 g salsicce & pork ribs at equal parts. This is quite a lot! The cookbook also defined gnocchi as side dish – of course hand-made, home-made gnocchi.
Back to the recipe on my blog:
I reduced the meat part to the salsicce (about 600 g). In reality I started w/ about 700 g salsicce & the result was enough for at least 4 people – I think even 5 people could have enjoyed it …
My better half & I we are no gnocchi fans (as well I wouldn’t give a thought to making gnocchi from the scratch). Instead we opted for pasta … I can also recommend just to add some fresh bread: it’s delicious! (… & you can wipe off all the spicy tomato sauce w/ your bread afterwards!)
Coming now to my approach in Southern France:
I worked with salsicce-like sausages (about 300 g for 2 people), carrots & onions … Instead of fresh thyme I used dried herbs of Provence.
What do you get at any approach?
Think of sausages in almost bite-sized pieces, absolutely soft & mellow w/ a spicy flavour that is allover the tomato vegetable mess! Be careful: you need only very few ground chili because the salsiccia is spicy on its own!
Then before serving: just cook some pasta …
Enjoy!
- about 600 g salsicce Italian pork sausage
- 400 g canned tomato pulp
- a pinch of sugar
- a pinch of ground chili
- 2 cloves
- fresh thyme about 2 tbsp leaves only
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 big onion
- 2 carrots
- 1 stalk of celery
- salt & pepper
- Chop the carrot, the celery & the onion & start frying in the olive oil – careful: don’t burn anything!
- Add salt & pepper to taste.
- Cut each salsiccia into 3-4 pieces.
- Pluck the thyme leaves.
- Add sugar, ground chili & cloves to the tomato pulp.
- As soon as the the carrot-celery-onion mix is soft (about 10 min frying) put it aside & mix w/ the thyme leaves.
- Start frying the salsicce until allover brown (about 10 min).
- Combine everything in a pot: the salsicce, the carrot-celery-onion-mix, the tomato pulp & mix.
- Bring to a boil, however, reduce heat as soon as the tomato pulp starts bubbling.
- Put a lid on the pot & let it simmer for about 2 h.
- Discard the cloves – if you find them. Otherwise give a warning to everybody at the dinner table.
