Cooking with Jeffinalabama Volume 1.1… creation

A quick attempt to talk about non-recipe cooking.

I love non-recipe cooking. Creating something from nothing.

However, we rarely, if ever, create ‘something from nothing.’

Usually, theres some basis– either italian, chinese, haut, southerm, or otherwise,

today i was playing, results to follow.

Well, The Godfather was on television this weekend, and I love the cooking scene in the movie. Remember, Michael gets a lesson on how to cook for 20 men?

“First you fry the sausage, then you add the peppers, then the onions, and then the tomatoes, then the sugar, then the meatballs…” or something like that. Wonderful!

today, I woke up, and decided to buy fewsh peppers and fresh

italan sausage… and yes it gets better.

Inredients:

Two yellow bell peppers (if red or orange are cheaper, buy them)

three green bell peppers

24 ounces mozzarella cheese

24 ounces Italian sausage, uncased.

five onions

1 can, 24 ounces, peeled whole tomatoes

chopped garlic, about 6 tablespoons

10 garlic cloves, whole or smashed

3/4 cup olive oil, not extra virgin (save that for flavor in other recipes)

1 tsp oregano

1 rsp marjoram

2 tsp basil

1 good handfull, italian seasoning ( your choice of brands)

Separate– 1 lb or more of spaghetti or other pasta… a mixture of pasta can be good as well.

French the onions and peppers. French is a way of cutting wherein all of the pieces from a particular piece are the same size, and, as such, will cook in a similar amount of time. Put in bowl.

Heat the olive oil in large frying pan, on medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add onions and peppers. Cook until the onion begins to brown and become transparent. At this time, the size should be reduced by at least half. This should take about 20-25 minutes.

Add garlic at this time. Stir.

Add tomatoes, Make sure to squeeze each whole tomato. Note– put on an apron!

Stir vigorously, then leave alone.

brown sausage in separate pot over medium heat. If it’s ‘good’ italian sausage, it should have little or no grease.

When sausage is browned, add to peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Add itialian seasoning.

Cook about 10-15 minutes on medium low heat. Add salt.

After it looks ‘done,’ in other words, when it looks as if everything is married together, remove from heat.

Cook pasta.

Drain.

Pour drained pasta into baking pan.

Pour sauce (peppers, onions, and so forth) on top. Mix well. Sprinkle basil and oregano on top. Mix again.

slice mozzerella into 1/4 inch slices and cover top of mixture. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

this can be served immediately, or you can stir the mixture, and bake for another 15 minutes.

Serving suggestions: with garlic bread and salad.

So… this is a creation, and is based on Sicilian style. Mrs. inalabama suggested adding a pound of sliced or chopped mushrooms, or a pound of sliced  yellow squash or zucchini… next time I will!

Enjoy!