We had this meal over New Year’s Weekend because I believe lentils are lucky to have around that time. Of course, I opted to not use lentils because I had some Christmas Lima Beans that I needed to use. I hope Christmas Lima Beans are still lucky. I soaked my beans for about 8 hours before I used them in the recipe, so make sure you do that if you are using larger dried beans. You could also just use lentils, like the original recipe calls for and skip the soaking all together. I think that’s what I’ll do next time.

That said, this meal was fantastic! The tomato salsa is really fragrant and good and I have discovered Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage at Trader Joe’s. Wow — it was so tasty in this. Feel free to use the sausage of your choice — chicken, turkey or traditional pork sausage. Note: If your sausage is not raw, I would just cook briefly in the pan, not bake in the oven too.

This will feed a lot, so invite people over or have lunches and dinners for the week to look forward too.

Sausages and Legumes with Tomato Salsa
Adapted from a recipe in Jamie’s Italy
8 medium-sized good-quality Italian sausages (my package of chicken Italian sausage only had 5, so that’s how many I used)
Olive oil
1 pound broccoli florets
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
A small handful of chopped thyme

For the tomato salsa
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 small stick of cinnamon
1-2 small dried red chilies, crumbled
2 tbsp red wine vinegar, plus extra for dressing
2 (14 ounce) cans of good-quality plum tomatoes (I used Italian stewed tomatoes)

For the lentils (or beans)
14 ounces lenticchie di Castelluccio or Puy lentils (or the equivalent in pre-soaked beans)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
A handful of fresh flat–leaf parsley, leaves chopped, stems reserved
Red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

Start the salsa: Heat the olive oil in a pan, then add the onion and sliced garlic, cinnamon stick and a the chili, saute on a gentle heat for 10 minutes, until the onions are soft. Turn the heat up and add your red wine vinegar — stand back.

Then turn the heat down to low and add the canned tomatoes. Break them up with a wooden spoon and simmer while you work on the rest of the meal.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the beans into a pot, cover them with water, and add the 2 whole cloves of garlic, the bay leaf, and some tied-up stems from the parsley. Simmer for around 20 minutes for lentils, up to an hour for larger beans. Make sure that you’ve got enough liquid covering the lentils or beans.

Toss the sausages in a little olive oil and sear them in a pan, then put them in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden and crisp. It helps if the pan you seared them in is oven safe.

Toss your broccoli in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and add it to the oven too, roasting for about 15-20 minutes. When done, toss in a bowl with a squeeze of lemon juice and some extra virgin olive oil.

Once the lentils or beans are cooked, remove the parsley stems and bay leaf and pour away most of the water from the pot. Mash the garlic cloves up with a spoon, mix in with the lentils or lentils, and dress them using 4 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil and 1 or 2 tablespoons of good vinegar. Throw in all your finely chopped parsley leaves, mix, and season.

Remove the sausages from the pan and pour away any fat. Transfer lentils or beans into your serving bowl. Remove the cinnamon stick from the salsa and discard it, then season well to taste and spoon it over your lentils or beans. Place the sausages, either sliced or whole, on top. Sprinkle with the thyme or parsley and serve with a big bowl of the roasted broccoli.

Starting this meal off? A killer antipasto platter I put together with — roasted red pepper, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, olives, prosciutto, mole salami, marinated mushrooms and aged provolone.

This is a great recipe in which to use some of that turkey stock you just made. Or, of course, chicken stock works well too. Vegetable stock/broth probably too. This is not completely authentic, I’m sure. I’ve added tomatoes and tweaked the ingredients to my liking. Such as: I prefer this very garlicky and thick but you can adapt that to your needs. It can be stew-like or soup like. You can prepare it dressed like a reindeer. The choices are endless.

I also used a mix of spinach and wheat rigatoni, making it more like a healthy pasta dish with a chickpea sauce. That is just my way.

Instead of using a potato masher, you can also take about half the chickpeas out, use a blender on the remaining chickpeas/stock/veggies and then add the reserved whole chickpeas back into the pan when you add the pasta.

I halved the original recipe which fed four, so below, should feed two.

Okay, let’s do this!

Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with Chickpeas)
Adpated from the Splendid Table, who in turn, adapted it from Jamie Oliver — the original recipe is in Jamie’s Italy. It is, I checked!
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
A sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
1 14-oz. cans of chickpeas
2 cups of chicken stock
Optional: a piece of Parmesan rind
3/4 cup dried ditalini or other small Italian “soup” pasta
handful of cherry tomatoes halved or quartered, depending on size
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional 2: a small handful of fresh basil or parsley, leaves picked and torn, or more rosemary for garnish…and grated Parmesan cheese

Put the finely chopped onion, cherry tomatoes, and garlic into a saucepan with a little extra virgin olive oil and the rosemary and cook on low, with the lid on, for about 15-20 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft, without any color. Stir a couple of times to make sure nothing is getting to dark. The first time I did this, I put it on low, walked away and came back 20 minutes to burnt garlic and rosemary.

Drain your chickpeas well and rinse them in cold water, then add them to the pan and cover with the stock. If you have one (and I do, just for these types of occasions), put a small piece of Parmesan — or any hard italian cheese — rind in there and let it simmer. Cook gently for half an hour and then, use a potato masher to mash the chickpeas up a bit.

Season the soup with salt and pepper, and add the pasta. Simmer gently until the pasta is cooked. And discard your rind if you have it in there. It’s job is done

At this point, if the soup is a little thick, pour in some more chicken stock to thin it down, and add more salt and pepper if needed. Oh, why not, throw in a little grated Parmesan right now.

Serve drizzled with good-quality extra virgin olive oil and some torn basil if you have any. I did not.

I threw a rosemary piece on top for garnish.

Okay, this is seriously the best thing I have done with a pork tenderloin in like, years. Oh my god. Make this now. It was so good in fact, that I didn’t even get a decent picture of it for the title shot here. I just took it to the table and that was the end of that. So, above is a shot of the wine that we had for dinner. A zinfandel. It was good too.

The original recipe used bone-in pork chops but I substituted a pork tenderloin. I also did this indoors as opposed to outside on the grill, mainly because I was lazy. No matter, jwa & I were still rewarded with a delicious pork meal! I don’t really know what else to say about this except, uh, use fresh sage in the vinaigrette and get a spoon. Because you will be tempted to slurp that all up before the pork is even done.

Roasted Fennel-Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette
Adapted from the cookbook, “Grilling for Life” by Bobby Flay
Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette
3 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 shallot, coarsely chopped
1 tsp honey
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Fennel-Spiced Pork Tenderloin
2 tbsp fennel seeds
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 pork tenderloin, about 1 pound
1 tsp olive oil

For Vinaigrette: Combine the sage, lemon juice, zest, shallot, honey, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in oil and blend until emulsified. Set aside until needed.

For Pork: Heat your grill to medium-high. You can also sear this in a pan and then finish cooking in the oven. If you are going to do that, then preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the fennel seeds, salt, and peppercorns in a spice mill and process until finely ground. Alternatively, combine the spices on a cutting board and crush them with the bottom of a heavy pot.

Brush pork with oil and season on both sides with fennel mixture. I used about 3/4 of the mixture, next time I will probably just rub it all on.

Grill the pork until slightly charred on both sides and cooked to medium-well, 4-5 min per side. If using a stovetop/oven approach, sear the pork on all sides (about 5-6 minutes total), then finish cooking in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. You are looking to pull the pork out of the oven with an internal temperature of about 150 degrees F. Transfer pork to a place, tent with foil and let rest about 10 minutes.

To serve: slice pork on a bias and drizzle with some of the sage-lemon vinaigrette, serving the remaining vinaigrette on the side. We had this with some goat cheese polenta and roasted carrots, fennel and garlic.

I can imagine drizzling this Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette on all manner of things — chicken, fish, pasta, yourself. Anything really.

This is one of those meals that is so simple yet so good, that you can’t believe you didn’t make it before or that you don’t have it for dinner a few nights per week. It’s from The New Spanish Table and I promise, the next few posts WILL NOT be from that cookbook. Really. But, it’s such a wonderful cookbook! But no. I will restrain myself.

Here, I had just scored some figs from Limbo and was needing something to do with them. This was the perfect solution!

Grilled Chicken with Fresh Fig Salsita
Pollo a la Brasa con Salsita de Higos
8 to 9 smallish ripe but firm fresh figs, trimmed and cut into thin wedges
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced (I used a sweet onion instead)
3 tsbp medium-dry sherry
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
kosher or sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, rinsed and patted dry
1/4 cup lightly toasted slivered almonds
1/4 cup finely sliced fresh mint
Salt

Place figs, onion, sherry, vinegar and olive oil in a bowl; toss to mix. Let stand for 30 minutes.

Get your grill ready or heat up a grill pan.

Mix the minced garlic, rosemary, 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper and then add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to make a paste. You can also crush all of this up in a mortar and pestle. Or use a knife and crush it into a cutting board to form the paste.

Brush the chicken with the paste. Grill the chicken until lightly charred and cooked thoroughly, 6-8 minutes per side. Brush a few times with remaining paste while cooking.

Transfer chicken to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes. You can either slice the chicken breasts on the diagonal for serving or leave whole. When ready to serve, add almonds and mint to the salsita, toss to mix, and add salt to taste.

Plate a chicken breast and top with some of the salsita. I would feel remiss here, if I didn’t say that you could add some cheese, just as a garnish if you will. I think a little goat cheese would be amazing with this!

Okay, next, my new favorite granola recipe! Also, in house news — the siding is completely done and the paint prepping has begun. Hopefully, we’re looking at the whole project being done no later than next week. We’ve also changed weather patterns just in time for the painting and now we are getting rain. So, we’ll see…

I combined a couple of recipes here — one of the Paella recipes in the (awesome) New Spanish Table cookbook, a paella recipe from Tyler Florence and I also used the meat I wanted to — chicken thighs, chorizo and shrimp, rather than the exact ones in either recipe. You could throw all manner of meat and seafood in here, but I stuck to those three.

This makes a ton of paella! A. Ton. Of. Paella. It would be great to make for a dinner party or of you want to make something for dinner, have lunch the next day, and then be able to freeze a couple more lunches.

You will need a huge skillet or an actual paella pan here. Do not underestimate the amount of room you need in your cooking vessel or you will cry into your overflowing pan of Spanish tastiness.

Aside from the simmering stock, this all happens in one pan!

Lots of pictures in this post…

Paella for a Crowd
This will easily serve 8 as a main course.
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp dried oregano
1 lb chicken thighs
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 Spanish chorizo sausages, thickly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 white onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, sliced
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, cored and diced
1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped, or 1.5 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 cups short grain Spanish rice
6 cups chicken stock
Generous pinch saffron threads
1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 cup green beans, trimmed and cut into 1.5 inch pieces
1 roasted red bell pepper, cut into strips
Optional: 1 long strip of orange zest

Paella rice

Roasted red bell pepper

Roasted red bell pepper strips

Sliced chorizo

Okay, here are the directions!

Combine the paprika and oregano and rub the spice mix all over the chicken and marinate chicken for 1 hour in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Heat oil in a paella pan over medium-high heat.

Saute the chorizo until browned, remove and reserve.

Salt and pepper the chicken and add chicken and brown on all sides, turning with tongs.

Remove from pan and set aside. When cool enough to handle, slice into thick strips.

In the second pot, heat up the chicken stock and add the saffron. Keep at a very low simmer.

Next, in your paella pan, saute the onions, garlic, yellow bell pepper, and parsley in all the chorizo-y/chicken-y olive oil. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes on medium heat. Then, add tomatoes and cook until the flavors meld, about 5-6 minutes.

Fold in the rice and stir to coat the grains.

Now, this is where you need to decide if your pan is big enough. There’s no going back. Ready? Okay!

Pour the hot saffron-stock into the paella and simmer for 10 minutes, gently stirring occasionally so that the rice cooks evenly and starts to absorb the liquid.

Next, add the chicken, chorizo, then the green beans and shrimp. Try to tuck the chicken and shrimp under the rice. If you are using it, add the orange zest strip in there too. Put a lid on the pan and put in the oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven, check the rice for doneness — you can always stick it back in for a minute or two. If it’s good, uncover and rest for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with the roasted red bell pepper strips.

Leftovers will keep the fridge a few days, then freeze as needed!