Italian Sausage & Bean Casserole

DH's family are from Sicily.  We spend ALOT of time eating or thinking about Italian food.  Although I give it a good shot apparently no-one comes close to his Nonna's pasta dishes.   Probably because I'm always looking for ways to reduce the fat or cut the calories to make it less sinful. 

In Sicily we eat Italian sausage with crusty bread and salad dressed in olive oil & lemon juice.  The sausage is usually just pure pork, salt & pepper, sometimes flavoured with chilli or fennel.  But that is pretty much it.  You can pick up good Italian sausages in your local Italian deli and they are really worth trying as the flavour is unique.  Sadly pork sausages are just something I cannot indulge in mid-week when trying to stick to my WeightWatchers plan.

Until now I have yet to find a decent Italian sausage in a supermarket.  I am absolutely delighted to have recently found a gem at my local Waitrose deli counter.  It is not only deliciously tasty with it's fennel flavouring, but is made with 43% veal so is much lower in fat!  Hurrah!  A sausage I can finally enjoy (ahem).  Unfortunately I have yet to lay my hands on any nutritional info, so I have approximated the ProPoint values based on the % of pork and veal that make up the sausage. 

Onto the recipe.  This is one that I have taken from the fabulous BBC Good Food Mag. I usually can't resit meddling with a recipe, but I've got to say I pretty much followed this one.  After reading the reviews, I upped the sausage content to 300g (x3 of the Waitrose Italian sausage) and increased the stock (I used chicken stock) to 500ml.  Instead of serving with crusty bread or mash potato, I added 60g of orzo pasta to cook through with the meatballs to really fill out the meal, negating the need, or the temptation to demolish a whole ciabatta as a side. Ok so maybe I did meddle more than I thought!

You can get the original BBC Good Food recipe by clicking here but my version is also detailed below.

You'll need for 2:

• Half a large red onion, finely diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• Pinch of chilli flakes
• Salt & Pepper
• 3 Waitrose Italian sausages (300g)
• 1 tin of borlotti beans, drained
• 1 tin of cherry tomatoes in juice
• 500ml chicken or veg stock
• 100g green beans, halved
• 60g orzo pasta
• Parmesan to serve

What to do:

Heat a non-stick frying pan or stir frying pan.  Remove the casing from the sausages and break them up into small meatballs.  I got 6 out of each sausage.  Spray with oil and fry on a high heat to brown all over.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the onion, garlic, fennel seeds and chilli to the pan.  Turn the heat down to slowly cook the onions.  Add some salt to help bring out some of the moisture.  When soft add the tinned cherry tomatoes and stock.  Allow to bubble away for a few minutes.

Add the borlotti beans and the green beans.  I prepared everything in advance to this stage and when the meatballs were cool I put them in the fridge until needed.  If you do this just cover up the sauce and bring it back up to a boil when required.

Next add the orzo and a little more stock if need be, but 500ml should be about right.  Add the meatballs and reduce to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 10 - 15 minutes on a low heat so you do not reduce the sauce down to nothing.  When the orzo is cooked through, taste and season accordingly, then serve up with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 13 including parmesan, 12 without parmesan

Linguine Nero Di Sepia con Gamberoni & Capesante

Black squid ink linguine with king prawns & scallops

It was our 7^th wedding anniversary on Sunday so a celebratory meal was in order.  My hubby decided to continue with his latest desire to master the Italian cuisine.  It’s very fitting he should choose this particular dish which is so reminiscent of the wonderful times we have spent in Sicily eating fresh seafood, but more so as it was on this day 7 years ago that we tied the knot with the beautiful mountainous countryside of Sicily and our backdrop as we feasted on a 7 course meal which includes some of the best seafood we have ever tasted.

A bit about the produce:

When DH decides to do something, he does it to perfection so it is no surprise that he selected one of Italy’s finest variety of tomato to use in his fresh pasta sauce, the datterini.  These sweet, almost grape like tomatoes are available from Italian importers but do not come cheap at around £9 a kilo.  To get the most from this speciality tomato, he scored, blanched and peeled each baby plum tomato to create a wonderful sauce.  This was an afternoon’s work on its own!  Any good ripe, vine tomato would suffice if you do not have the inclination to use the datterini, however you can source them from Natoora

The fish was purchased from our favourite fishmonger; Chelsea Fishmongers in Guildford.  You can be guaranteed that what you find here has not been farmed or preserved in a warehouse only to reach our plates 3 weeks later.  The fish here is the freshest, often line caught or wild and off the boat within the last 48 hours.

The last ingredient that needs a special mention is the wonderful Linguine Nero di Sepia.  This black pasta gains its colour from squid ink which is of course, black. The injection of colour also adds as a flavour enhancer, making it the perfect accompaniment to seafood.  You can find squid ink pasta in specialist Italian delis such as Camisa

You’ll need for 2 adults:

• 150 – 200g linguine nero di sepia
• 500g datterini tomatoes, skinned and crushed, juice discarded
• 20g parsley, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp dry white wine
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed
• 8 king prawns, middle legs removed and middle peeled.  Head and tail not removed
• 6 large scallops, cut into 2 or 3
• ½ red chilli finely chopped.  Seeds added or not – to your liking
• Seasoning

What to do:

Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of salted water until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and add the garlic and chilli.  Fry gently for about 30 seconds.  Add the prawns and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side until they start to go lightly pink.  Remove to a plate.

Add the tomatoes and parsley and cook for around 7 minutes on a medium heat.  Add the wine and allow to evaporate for a minute or two.   Add the prawns back in and add the scallops too.  Season using plenty of black pepper and salt to your taste.

Drain the pasta and retain some of the cooking water.  Add to the sauce.  Toss together and serve.  Add some of the pasta water if you need to loosen the sauce at all.

When eating, you can remove the prawn heads and let all the wonderful juice from the head fall into the plate to add even more flavour and depth to this most delicious dish.