Laura
Ballance plays bass for indierock mainstay Superchunk
and co-founded Merge
Records. In addition to being a rocker, a babe,
and an all-around deluxe girl, this chick can cook.
Here's one of her old standby recipes you can fix up
in a jiffy. Bonus: it's cheap.
This is a quick and easy way to
make some really tasty food without a whole lot of effort.
All you really have to do is cut some stuff up and then
throw it in the oven. I first remember seeing this done
when I was a kid. My parents would take us over to the
Quigley's house and the grown-ups would drink loads
of wine (ladies) or beer (men). It seems like there
was usually a football game on as well. Mrs. Quigley
was Italian, so I would say this is sort of an Italian
dish. The quantities of everything are totally adjustable.
I can't really remember how much of everything I put
in. Just do what feels right. I like all the vegetables
to be in large pieces. It just looks better. Also, please
forgive me if I state the obvious.
1 large sweet potato
2 medium white potatoes
(Yukon or Idaho will do)
1 red bell pepper
3 medium onions
(skinned and quartered)
half a head of garlic
4 links of spicy Italian
sausage
olive oil
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh
rosemary (plus extra for garnish)
a pinch or two of red
pepper flakes
fresh ground black pepper
salt to taste
3 leeks (optional)
Another option:
beets (but they
can make the whole mess kind of sweet)
Preheat
oven to 400° Fahrenheit. Wash and chop your vegetables
into fairly large pieces and start throwing them into
a baking dish with a lid (like one of those glass Pyrex
ones). I leave the skins on my potatoes because they
taste good and are good for you. Also, as you chop everything
up keep in mind how quickly different things cook. Sweet
potatoes cook faster than white potatoes so you want
to cut your sweet potato into larger chunks so that
they will be ready at about the same time as the other
potatoes.
Take
the core out of the pepper, chop into large bits. Like,
maybe six or eight lengthwise pieces. They cook even
faster than a sweet potato. Peel and quarter your onions.
Separate the cloves of garlic and take off any excess
skin...but leave a layer of skin on there. It's good
that way.
Put
your sausages, rosemary, pepper flakes, salt and pepper
in the dish and pour on some olive oil. Stir everything
around to make sure everything gets some olive oil on
it and cover. Place in oven. Total cooking time is generally
about an hour. Take out every twenty minutes or so and
stir the items around a little. They need to be rearranged
to make sure everything is cooking evenly.
Wash
your leeks very well. They tend to be sandy. Try slicing
them lengthwise, but not all the way down to the base
to get all the sand out from between the leaves. Chop
off the top tough part and discard. Then slice them
up.
After
your dish has been in the oven for forty minutes take
off the cover and leave it off. Also, add those leeks
and mix them in with the other veggies. Cook for about
twenty more minutes (test your potatoes for doneness)
and voilà! Serve with a nice salad and your favorite
red wine, which you have hopefully started drinking
already. Serves three or four.
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