Tag Archives: food

Sausage, Fennel, and Ricotta Pizza

October 25, 2013
Shannon
2 comments
fennel, food, pizza, ricotta, turkey sausage

I’ve been on a little bit of a pizza binge lately. Whether it’s greasy takeout pizza, frozen pizza or homemade pizza, I’m all about it. Earlier this year, I was in the habit of coming home on Fridays after work, throwing a frozen pizza in the oven, popping open a beer or two and settling in to watch Grimm with the lights off. Yes, it’s sad, I don’t go out on Fridays. By the time work is over for the week, I’m exhausted and look forward to a Friday night at home. Well, now that Grimm starts again tonight, I’m right back into old habits except this time, I’m challenging myself to make a different pizza each week instead of those inexpensive frozen pizzas I’m used to having (no matter how much I love them!). This Sausage, Fennel, and Ricotta Pizza was no disappointment.

Refrigerated pizza crust is topped with browned turkey sausage, thin fennel slices, and dollops of creamy garlic-laced ricotta. Red pepper flakes and fennel seeds are scattered over the whole pie before it is baked until golden and crispy. This pizza uses fennel 3-ways: in the sausage, fresh from the bulb and the seeds. I have decided I’m obsessed with fennel. I’ve used fennel before in soups and other recipes but this pizza really stands out to me as a way to really celebrate fennel’s unique flavor. If you haven’t used a fresh fennel before, this is a great way to try it. The slices get soft when baking and the flavor mellows out perfectly. Of course, if you really aren’t into fennel bulb, you can leave it out: the fennel seeds provide perfect flavor alone. Pizza and beer sounds like the perfect way to spend a Friday night to me.

The ingredients:

Preheat oven to 500° (keep pizza stone or baking sheet in oven as it preheats). Let pizza dough stand at room temperature, covered, while oven preheats. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Remove casing from sausage. Add sausage to pan; cook 4 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring to crumble. Add fennel bulb; cook 4 minutes or until tender.

Roll pizza dough into a 16-inch oval on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle cornmeal over pizza stone or pizza pan; place dough on pizza stone or pan. Brush dough evenly with oil. Sprinkle sausage mixture evenly over dough, leaving a 1-inch border.

Combine ricotta and garlic in a small bowl; top pizza with teaspoonfuls of ricotta mixture.

Sprinkle red onion and remaining ingredients evenly over pizza.

Bake at 500° for 11 minutes or until golden. Cut into 8 slices.

Additions: None

Omissions:

Red onion

Substitutions: None

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Cooking Light magazine

Sausage-and-Feta Cheese-Stuffed Peppers

October 23, 2013
Shannon
3 comments
cheese, feta, food, peppers, turkey sausage

Do you ever come across a recipe and think If only I liked (fill in the blank), I’d love this! Well when I came across this recipe for Chorizo-and-Goat Cheese-Stuffed Peppers I thought, if only I liked goat cheese and if only I ate chorizo and if only this used basil instead, this would be right up my alley! Well, when in doubt, substitute! I recreated these appetizers using what I wanted instead to come up with something similar yet my own. Introducing Sausage-and-Feta Cheese-Stuffed Peppers!

Turkey sausage and peppers are cooked together before adding in creamy cream cheese and tangy feta cheese. The whole mixture is scooped into mini-sweet peppers and baked creating a perfectly small, appetizer-sized stuffed pepper. The flavor of the turkey sausage, mixed with the difference cheeses and sweet peppers make for an overall perfect appetizer in my opinion. Yes, removing the seeds of the peppers and making them into cute little boats may be a bit time consuming but the rest of the dish is easy as pie and quick to come together. The hardest part is waiting the fifteen minutes for these suckers to be done. The best part of the hardest part? Eating the left over sausage mixture out of the pan with a spoon while you wait.

Sausage-and-Feta Cheese-Stuffed Peppers (makes 24 appetizers)

Adapted from Coastal Living Magazine‘s Chorizo-and-Goat Cheese-Stuffed Peppers

24 baby peppers or mini-peppers
1 lb turkey sausage or pork sausage (hot or sweet, up to you!)
2 ounces reduced-fat feta cheese
4 ounces 1/3-less fat cream cheese
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cut about 1/4 inch from top of peppers to form a “boat” (see picture below). Seed peppers, if desired, and finely chop pepper tops. Combine chopped peppers and sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until sausage is browned. Drain well, if necessary. Add feta and cream cheeses, stirring until well blended. Spoon or pipe sausage mixture into pepper boats. Place on prepared baking sheet, and bake 15 minutes or until cheese melts and peppers are tender. Garnish with basil, if desired.

The ingredients:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cut about 1/4 inch from top of peppers to form a “boat.” Seed peppers, if desired, and finely chop pepper tops.

Combine chopped peppers and sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until sausage is browned. Drain well, if necessary.

Add feta and cream cheeses, stirring until well blended.

Spoon or pipe sausage mixture into pepper boats. Place on prepared baking sheet, and bake 15 minutes or until cheese melts and peppers are tender.

Garnish with basil, if desired.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions (from adapted recipe):

Turkey sausage
Reduced-fat feta cheese
1/3-less fat cream cheese
Basil

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Adapted from Coastal Living magazine

Asparagus-Ricotta Tart

Sometimes I’m not sure how I should feel about seeing produce that is on sale when it’s not in season. Usually, that’s when out-of-season produce is most expensive. So when I saw that bundles of asparagus were on sale at my grocery store, I had to wonder if something was wrong with them. But at this point in the fall, I can only eat so much broccoli. This asparagus looked perfectly green and the spears were nice and thin, the way I like them so I scooped them up. This recipe for Asparagus-Ricotta Tart was a perfect fall-time use for them.

Eggs are mixed with ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, milk, chives, salt and pepper and poured into a pie pan before being topped with trimmed asparagus spears and baked until set and golden. Don’t like asparagus or have another veggie on hand? Use whatever vegetables float your boat here: peppers, broccoli, spinach or potatoes would work perfectly either scattered on top or mixed in with the eggs and ricotta. This is a perfect weekend morning meal served with some fruit or even a busy weeknight meal served with a salad thanks to its ease. Leftovers store perfectly in the fridge for a few days making this an easy make-on-the-weekend-for-weekday-grab-and-go breakfast.