Week 5 (Cooking) - Spinach, Tomato, Sausage, and Ravioli Red Wine Bake

Already the first week of February has come and gone and with it the week 5 cooking challenge of alcohol. I hemmed and hawed over this challenge but couldn't make up my mind on a dish; I don't typically cook with alcohol and nothing sounded particularly appealing. So in the end I did as I always do, when it doubt, make it up as you go along!

I spent a day or two thinking of flavor combinations I enjoyed and then pieced this together with what I had in the house. I had to run out for ravioli and sausage, but all in all not too shabby. The dish I created was a baked cheese ravioli with spinach, tomatoes, and hot Italian sausage, tossed in a red wine sauce; then covered in shredded cheese - pepper jack & part-skim mozzarella - and baked to perfection.

• 1 package (5 links) Italian sausage
• 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and thoroughly drained
• 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 6 oz cans tomato paste
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or diced, optional
• 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper, optional
• Spices to taste - Oregano, basil, thyme, fennel seeds...
• 25 oz (give or take) cheese ravioli, fresh or frozen
• 1/4 c - 1/2 c shredded cheese - I use about a 1/4 pepperjack (because I love spicy things) and 1/4 c shredded part-skim mozzarella. 

1. Remove sausage from casing and cook over medium-high heat on a large non-stick pot/wok breaking into small pieces, until browned.
2. While sausage is cooking bring a large pot of water to boil.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°.
4. When the sausage it browned, set it aside in a separate dish, and pour off any grease remaining in your pot; however, it's not necessary to wash/wipe out the pot. 
5. Cook spinach for 3-5 minutes.
6. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, garlic cloves and spices.
   
   

   

   As you can see here, I didn't cook my spinach first...live and learn.

   
   
7. Bring sauce to a boil.
8. Stir in the cooked Italian sausage.
   
   

   

   
   

9. Reduce heat, and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
   
   

   

   
   

10. Once the water is boiling, add ravioli and cook according to package instructions.
    
    

    

    
    

11. Drain ravioli and toss in reduced sauce.
    
    

    

    
    

12. Transfer to a large casserole dish.
13. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the top.
    
    

    

    
    

14. Cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and just begins to brown.
15. Remove from oven and allow to cool for roughly 5 minutes before serving.
16. Dig in.

Note: If your sauce seems too thick you can thin it down with an extra splash of wine before adding the ravioli. If it's REALLY thick, you can add store bought marinara sauce until your desired consistency  is reached. If this affects your flavors, add additional spices, wine to taste.

As mentioned in the above photograph, I didn't cook the spinach beforehand because... well... I didn't think I needed to. So while this dish was delicious, the spinach was a bit stringy and definietly should have been cooked briefly before adding the other elements. I've corrected that for you, and will do so for myself in the future.

Happy dining!

Week 1 - Eggciting Mini Frittatas AKA Egg Cupcakes

This is the first week of the 52 weeks of cooking challenge over on reddit , and the theme is eggs. For those of you who aren't in my immediate circle of friends (I like to pretend there's at least a few of you out there) here's some necessary info about this theme: I don't cook eggs. Ever. I bake with eggs; I'll even go so far as to make hard boiled eggs; but that's pretty much where I draw the line.

I like eggs though, I especially love a good omelette; but when I cook eggs for myself there are two guaranteed outcomes :

• Jesus, WTF is this runny stuff? or
• bleck, they're so black...and chewy!

Upon a few lucky occasions my palatte has been graced with a terrible combinations of those two options. 

Okay, so... eggs, me, no good. Got it?

That said I went ahead and decided that obviously the best solution here was to just wing it for egg week. Recipes, who needs recipes? Psshhh.

What I came out with was not only cute, but totally edible. I'd even go so far as to say enjoyable. 

Me! Eggs! No induced vomiting! Victory thy name is fritatta. 

MINI FRITTATAS

Ingridients

• 1 small or 1/2 a large yellow onion - diced
• 1 small green pepper - diced
• 1 small red pepper -  You guessed it...diced
• 1 cup cooked ham - cubed (a fancy word for diced)
• 8-10 eggs, beat well, with a splash of cream, preferably heavy/whipping cream if you have it handy
• Cheese for sprinkling, approx. 3/4 cup
• Pepper to taste

The Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 375°
2. Spray all 12 cups of a standard muffin/cupcake pan with cooking spray.
3. Distribute onions evenly across all 12 cups.
   
   

   

   Onions

4. Repeat with green peppers, then red peppers.
   
   
   
   

   

   Red & Green Peppers

5. Add in the ham.
6. Sprinkle each cup with cheese. I really like cheese. I made mine pretty cheese heavy.
   
   

   

   Ham & Cheese

7. Sprinkle each  cup with pepper.
8. Pour on the eggs. Be sure to pour the egg mixture over the center, and pour slowly. It will seem really full for the first few seconds, but then the eggs will seep down into and around the other ingridients. I used a 1/4 c. measuring cup and then went back and added more as needed once I'd finished them all.
   
   

   

   Pouring the Eggs

9. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the crowns of each are slightly brown and no longer appear wet.
   *Pro tip: Put a cookie sheet underneath your muffin pan to catch any egg run-off that may push it's way out of the cups while baking. Seriously, do this. Otherwise a giant smokey mess is in your future. Not that I know that from personal experience or anything...
10. Cool on a wire cooling wrack for 5-10 minutes until they are cool enough to be picked up with out falling apart. They'll feel just a little firm but still quite soft and warm. 
11. Gently remove and transfer to a serving platter. If pieces are sticking, run a butter knife along the edge of each cup before trying to remove the fritattas. As you can see in my picture below, some came out a little prettier than others. Live and learn, live and learn...
    
    

    

    Completed Pieces on the left w/ buttermilk biscuits to the right.

This batch was super fun and delicious, but in the future I will be sure to sauté the veggies in a little butter first to enhance the flavor and dry up some of the water that seeped out during baking. All in all this challenge was a huge success.

Next stop, chinese food. Eeep!