Skillet "Salad"

Sweet Italian Sausage Skillet Salad



So, I have all these fresh ingredients kicking around that I need to use up.

Baby spinach
Baby arugula
Clementines (I can never resist those cute little crates of clementines that show up in the stores this time of year, and I can never manage to eat them all before nasty things start happening to them. But I always try. You don't need them for this recipe, as I found out. More later.)
MacIntosh apples
Two of the fresh, mild Italian sausages (they came five to a package). I know I could freeze them, but this will be more fun.
Cremini Mushrooms
some skinny asparagus stalks that I bought over a week ago and nearly forgot about. Still good, but their time is running short
onions
some leftover white wine (how did THAT happen?)

I also have a skinny loaf, called a ficelle, of "bake at home" bread

If this were summer, I would just grill the sausages, cut them up, make a salad with the rest of the stuff and whip up a honey-Dijon dressing, put the sausage chunks on the salad, slice up the bread (or even make croutons) and call it a day.

But it's cold outside and I want a hot meal. So why not a hot salad? If I also had potatoes on hand, I would probably make a hot German potato salad with the sausage and toss in some of the veggies for good measure. Sadly, although they are something I usually do keep on hand, I have no potatoes, because I'm trying to clear out the pantry ahead of a Christmas trip.

I do have eggs, and could try making a quiche, but I'm getting pretty hungry and I don't feel like fooling with a quiche right now. Maybe next time.

So: Hot skillet salad.

Bake the bread according to the directions. Mine takes 10 minutes at 350. I start it first and turn the oven off when it is done, leaving it in the warm oven until the rest of the meal is ready. If I didn't have it, I would put a couple of pieces of bread in the toaster a bit later on in the process..

In the skillet, with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, sweat on medium heat for a couple of minutes:

1 small onion, chopped (those of you who don't like onion, and you know who you are, can either leave it out or leave it in bigger chunks that are easier to pick out later)

3 Cremini mushrooms, washed and sliced.

Turn the heat up to medium high, scoot the mushroom/onion mix to one side and put in the sausages. I left them whole this time, just to see. Let them brown well on one side (at least four minutes) before turning the first time. Keep an eye on them but don't be fussing with them all the time. While you are waiting, it's time to rinse and dry the greens, chop up an apple, and wash and snap off the tough ends of the asparagus. Those could be saved for soup, or put in the compost. If you don't happen to have asparagus, no big deal. If you happen to have some green beans or sugar snap peas, a handful of those would be good.

I also disassembled a couple of clementines, but to be honest they got bitter tasting and I will leave them out next time, or add them cold at the end for a temperature contrast and their sweetness.

If you didn't have a nice loaf of fresh bread, this might be when you'd stick some slices in the toaster.

When the sausages are brown all around, and in the case of mine, starting to pop out of the casing at the end,. start adding the chopped up ingredients, starting with things that take longest. For me, that was asparagus (or whatever) first, then apple (you don't want it to turn into applesauce), with spinach and arugula last. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Pour in about a half cup of white wine. Add another tablespoon or two of olive oil and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (or any flavored vinegar you like). Yes, you have just made a hot salad dressing/sauce with the wine, oil and vinegar, plus the juices from the sausage and veggies. It might seem like too much liquid. It isn't.

Let it bubble for a minute or two while the leafy greens wilt. Taste a bit to see if you want to add salt/pepper/nothing.

Good time to shave off a few bits of Parmesan. I used my Oxo vegetable peeler -- I think my friend Star showed me that trick.

Tear off a couple of hunks of bread , or tear up the toast, and put in the bottom of the bowl.
Fish out the sausages and slice into "coins" or hunks or whatever you like.
Spoon or pour the hot salad into the bowl on top of the bread, which will soak up some of that lovely dressing, and arrange the sausage on top. Add the Parmesan shavings. Grab a fork.

Yes, because of all the ingredients, this makes more than one serving. At least two. I am not sure the leftovers will reheat well. On the other hand, they might turn into a decent hot and sour soup, especially if I pluck out the clementine bitter bits. (See above for another way to use leftovers by turning them into filling for puff pastry appetizers.)

When eating this, be sure to try different combinations of the ingredients in different bites. And dig down and nab some of the dressing-soaked bread!

Sweet Italian sausage skillet supper

This is sweet Italian sausage with mushrooms, shallots, baby spinach, baby arugula, grape tomatoes and clementine, with cous-cous. It takes half an hour or less. I do wish the photo were better, and I will work on that.

You could use any pasta, or you could use rice. I used cous-cous because I like it, I always have it on hand, and it is practically an instant food. And whole-grain cous-cous tastes better, in my opinion, than most of the whole-grain pastas I have tried.

And if that weren't enough, I made this with cous-cous that was left over from the day before! Because, trust me, one cup of cous-cous goes a long way. That's fine, because it is so versatile.
If you haven't tried cous-cous, give yourself a treat. It has a mild, kind of nutty flavor, and you can add ANYTHING you like to it.

Here's how to make it:

Cous-cous
One cup of liquid: I generally use either water or chicken stock, but you could use vegetable stock or even fruit juice if you wanted. Hmm, I think I will try making it with orange juice some time!

--2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil or any oil or you can skip this

--1/2 teaspoon of salt (omit if you are cutting back on salt or if you are using a salted broth)

Bring this to a good, rolling boil in a medium size saucepan. Don't use too small a pan; you will regret it. Measure out a cup of cous-cous. Turn heat off once the liquid boils, then pour in the cous-cous and give it a good stir and smack a lid on it. (If you don't have a lid for your pan, aluminum foil or even a plate will do.) Wait 5 minutes, open it up and fluff the cous-cous with a fork.

That's the basic recipe. You can add all kinds of things, including dried fruits or an array of seasonings, but since this is going to be served as part of the sausage supper, I won't go into that here.

Obviously, since I did it, you can refrigerate any leftovers, and reheat either in the microwave (add a little liquid) or by tossing right into the pan with your other ingredients. Speaking of which:

Quick and easy Sweet Italian Sausage skillet supper:
This is for 1-2 servings

Get out your large skillet (I use my cast-iron chicken fryer, because it is nice and deep, so I don't spill things when I am stirring later on; any large skillet will do, I guess). Over medium heat:

Put in about

--2 tablespoons of olive oil, butter or whatever, enough to generously coat the botoom, and add

--2 shallots, diced -- or you could use about half of a small onion. I like shallots when cooking a small quantity of food, because I like the flavor and they're the right size for one or two portions. If I chopped an onion, I'd go ahead and dice it all and put it in the fridge (well-sealed in plastic and/or glass) for another meal.

--3 Cremini mushrooms, sliced -- well, of course, whatever mushrooms you have or like. Creminis are the small version of Portobellos, by the way; or, rather, Portobellos are the giant version of creminis. Whatever.

Season those with a little salt and pepper, but keep in mind that the next thing going in is the sausage, which has lots of flavor, so don't over-season at this point.


--2-3 links of sweet Italian sausage. I used 3 because I wasn't having a "starter" course or dessert. I like mild, but if you like hot, go for it. I also like to squeeze the sausage out of the "links" into little meatballs about the size of radishes, partly because I don't like the casings and partly because the more surface area, the more yummy brown carmelized crust. Drop those into the pan. Saute over medium high heat, stirring only occasionally, until they are yummy and brown on all sides. I use a sturdy metal "turner" to scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure the shallots and mushrooms aren't burning and to make sure the sausage is getting evenly browned.

While that's going on, wash and pat dry

--a handful of baby spinach leaves. 12-20 leaves is my guess, but if I catch you standing there counting, I will suggest you get help.

--a handful of baby arugula, which is optional but nice, and it's my nephew Mike's favorite thing. Put this decoratively on a plate. You can sprinkle with a little olive oil, if you'd like. I did.

Wash and slice in half
-- a handful of grape tomatoes. What did I tell you about counting? OK, six or so.
-- zest (grate the colorful part of the peel), peel and dismember one clementine. You could use about half an orange. I would cut the sections in half and make sure there aren't any annoying pits.

--Get ready with about 1/2 cup of liquid: Open a bottle of white wine if you haven't already. If you don't have or don't use wine, get out some chicken broth. If you have homemade, good for you. The rest of us use the kind that comes in a box. I like low or no-salt varieties made from free-range chickens. I would NOT use chicken bouillion for this, as it is very salty. It would be better to use water.

--Grate a couple of teaspoons or tablespoons of Parmesan. Your call.

Is the sausage brown yet? Then

add the spinach, clementine sections, zest, tomatoes and about 1/2 cup of wine or other liquid. Hear the sizzle. Use that turner again to scrape up all the yummy bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook for about two more minutes until the tomatoes pucker a little, the spinach wilts just a tad, and everything is hot. This is a good time to taste and decide if it needs more seasoning; be sure you get a bit of the sausage in your tasting sample before you make that decision. I added

-- a dash of an Italian spice blend that is mostly oregano.

If you are using leftover (cold) cous-cous, fluff it again with a fork to make sure it isn't lumpy, then just stir it right into the pan. It may absorb even more liquid than it already has, so stand ready to add a little more liquid, but you don't want it soupy. Give it a minute or two to heat up.

If you are using freshly made cous-cous, put it on the plate on top of the arugula and pour the sausage mixture over.

Add the Parmesan on top.

Pour a glass of wine if you haven't already.

Enjoy.

This turns out to be more than one portion; might feed two, especially with a "starter" course. Definitely enough left over for tomorrow's lunch or a freezer meal.