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 degrees 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.
This is how the dish will look before the final browning:
the sausage will be cooked through and the potatoes will
be tender (poke them with a fork--they won't resist when
they're ready). After you mix in the leeks, keep the lid
off and make sure the sausage is on top so it will get
nicely browned. |
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.
The finished dish, garnished with rosemary. |
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