Kale & Sausage Dinner Tart with Cheesy Rice Crust

So, it’s Saturday. Not Friday, when this post was supposed to go up. And I have no excuse really. I just suck. But let’s not focus on that right now, let’s focus on this tart, pie thing.

Pie. This was Sausage Pie. And it was glorious.

I’m using the past tense here, because that beautiful thang is long since gone, and I may or may not be still mourning it’s end. The lovely smell of sausage filled my kitchen for the better part of a day and it was heaven. Heaven, I tell you.

I can not take full credit for the ideas, I found both recipes at different times on Food52. But then I had the "genius" (um, common sense) idea to put them together. So la di da. I adapted lightly here and there to adjust for what I had on hand. Most especially there is a lot more sausage in here than the original recipe which I like to think is an improvement. I carnivore, therefore, I am. I am also not the type of person who typically has wine on hand for throwing into recipes. Do you think of me differently now? Chicken stock (from da freezer!) sufficed.

What is actually genius is the vision to smash leftover rice into a crust for a flawless gluten free alternative to tart dough. So thanks for that, Food52. Writing about this makes me want to make it all over again. Next time, I’d go all out and use hot italian sausage instead. Nice and sassy like.

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Kale & Sausage Dinner Tart with Cheesy Rice Crust

Ingredients:

Crust:

lightly adapted from this recipe at Food52

1 ½ cups cooked rice

¼ cup shredded parmesan

¼ cup white cheddar

1 egg white

salt and pepper to taste

Tart filling:

lightly adapted from this recipe at Food52

1 pound sweet italian sausage

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch kale, cut into 1 inch pieces

¼ cup chicken stock

¼ cup ricotta

2 eggs beaten

salt and pepper to taste

shredded parmesan for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees

In a large mixing bowl, mix together rice, cheeses, egg white, and salt & pepper until well combined. Mixture should be sticky enough to hold together if you squeeze it lightly in hands.

Press mixture evenly into a 9-inch pie pan. Par bake in oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

Lower heat to 400 degrees.

Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium heat. Once cooked, remove from pan and set aside in a large mixing bowl. In the fat from the sausage, add onion to the pan and saute until translucent and beginning to caramelize. Add garlic to pan and cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add kale to pan and cook until wilted, 5 to 10 minutes. Add chicken stock to pan and cook until reduced just slightly, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan as you go. Remove from heat and add to bowl with sausage. Stir to combine. Allow to cool slightly.

Once cooled, about 5 minutes, add ricotta, eggs, and salt & pepper. Stir to combine well and then pour into prepared crust. Spread out evenly. Sprinkle top with shredded parmesan if desired.

Bake in oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until crust has browned a bit on the edges.

Once removed from oven, leave to cool a bit and set.

Serves 8

Brown Butter Sage Squash and Sausage

Did everyone else already figure out that Christmas is in less than a week?! Because that shit snuck up on me this year. And that is nearly impossible for a Christmas baby, like myself. An actual Christmas baby, as in, down to the day.

So to make up for the fact that I’ve neglected it completely I just went on an amazon clicking SPREE. Because, as proven previously, I am a “responsible” “adult” who leaves more than enough time to get things done and never lets things burn in the oven.

I waited until the day before the secret santa exchange to purchase the gift online and then was super surprised when everything went wrong with the order. No, that will not ship when you need it, no, definitely a week after you need it and no, you can’t cancel your order because you need to be taught lessons in thinking ahead of time. Thanks, life.

Will I learn my lesson? Will I begin my Christmas shopping IMMEDIATELY so that I can have everything wrapped before the actual day arrives? We shall see. I do enjoy the adrenaline rush of finding out NOTHING WILL SHIP WHEN IT’S SUPPOSED TO AND THIS IS OUT OF STOCK AND YOU CAN’T FIND IT IN STORES.

Whew! I love the holidays!!

Lies. I am possibly a Grade A grinch. I am sorry to burst anyone’s holiday bubble. I am a bah humbug, no tree, no decor, no holiday spirit type person. In other words, the worst. But! but! but! Before you leave me and my Christmas hating ways, give me a secret surprise to try and contain for weeks and a rolling pin and cookie cutters and I am your girl! I make up for my Scrooge-likeness with my deep pleasure for gift giving and holiday baking.

I am super excited to try out this recipe from the goddess over at smitten kitchen and I’ve already made and gifted her hot chocolate mix.

In the meantime, I’m plotting what my birthday sweet might be and making super simple meals like the one below while I panic over the upcoming holiday. All I can say is, thank goodness for amazon prime shipping!

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Brown Butter Sage Squash and Sausage

Ingredients:

1 pound sweet italian sausage, squeezed from casing

1 large butternut squash, or two small ones peeled and cut in 1 inch cubes

salt and pepper

4 tablespoons butter

4 to 5 whole sage leaves

Directions:

Brown sausage in a pan over medium heat until no longer pink, approximately 10 minutes. Break up sausage into crumbles as it it cooking.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

While sausage is browning, prepare a sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper or tinfoil. Spread cubed squash out on pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Once the sausage crumbles are basically cooked through, toss them with squash on the sheet pan. Make sure to get all that good sausage fat on there too and coat the squash cubes with it.

Throw into the oven for approximately 40 minutes, turning over at least once so the squash sides roast equally.

While the sausage and squash is roasting, melt butter and sage down in a small pan over a medium heat. Once it’s melted, watch for it to become a toasty brown and start to smell nutty. Watch it very carefully. Don’t let it go too far or you'll end up with burnt butter, not brown butter.

Remove from heat once brown and nutty. Set aside.

Once squash and sausage is done roasting, pour brown butter sage sauce over the hot squash and sausage. Toss gently to coat and serve.

Escarole Sausage Soup with Cranberry Beans

I’m still mourning the end of my beautiful, lovely, first year of my CSA. My last pickup was about a month ago. Although, somehow, my fridge is still overflowing with vegetables.

I’ve got bundles and bundles of chard, kale, and carrots. Pretty yellow carrots which, I might add, I am having a hard time eating just because they are so pretty. It's a problem of mine, see here.

The escarole and beans in this soup below were from my farm share. I’d never encountered the beans previously. Although, now I have been spotting those pretty pink thangs all over the farmer’s market. If you can’t find the beans or the escarole at the greenmarket, just sub in another leafy green, like kale or chard and some dried or canned cannellini beans

In New York, it is going to be GROSS and rainy this weekend. While I am staunchly pro-sunshine --- cold, rainy, winter weekends do give me a nice excuse to catch up on several episodes of The Wire and get all sorts of cuddly with the boy and the cat, because obviously I am also staunchly pro-snuggling.

A warm bowl of soup really rounds out the picture, don’t you think?

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Escarole Sausage Soup with Cranberry Beans

Ingredients:

1 pound hot italian sausage, squeezed from casing

dash of olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups water

approx. 2 cups shelled cranberry beans (can substitute dried or canned cannellini beans if desired)

salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon paprika

1 bay leaf

1 head escarole, torn into bite sized pieces (can also use any other winter leafy green - they may need more cooking time however.)

shredded parmesan for garnish (if desired)

Directions:

In a large pot over medium heat brown sausage until no longer pink. Scoop sausage onto a plate and set aside. Add a dash of olive oil to the sausage fat and then add the chopped onions. Scrape up the brown bits from the sausage while stirring the onions, coating them in fat. Saute onions until soft and translucent. Add garlic to onions and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the sausage back in, along with beans. Lastly, add in the broth and water. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, and bay leaf.

Bring soup to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook until beans are soft and creamy, about 45 minutes. If you substitute canned beans, they will only need about 15 minutes to warm through. Stir in escarole and let wilt into soup, approximately 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Serve with grated parmesan on top, if desired.

Yield: approximately 8 cups