Sausage Sangie (Sandwich) With Fennel, Celery and Red Onion Slaw

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This sangie (sangie is my nickname for sandwich) is a nice change of pace from the good ol' sausage and peppers. Everything comes together extremely well.

Ingredients: Sweet or hot Italian sausage, ciabatta or portuguese rolls, butter, garlic, fennel, celery, red onion, red wine vinegar, sugar and parmigiano reggiano.

Preparation: For the slaw, I sliced the bulb of the fennel very thin, reserving the fronds. Next I halved the celery and sliced three stalks lengthwise, very thin as well, reserving the leaves. A small red onion was also sliced very thin from end to end. Now, I added about 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and sugar to a small pot and brought to a boil for sugar to dissolve. Combine all veggies, fennel fronds and chopped celery leaves to a large bowl; add the red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss and set aside.

The sausage was prepared in a pan over medium heat, drizzled with olive oil and browned. A few minutes before the sausage is ready, preheat the broiler for the bread. I normally use ciabatta bread for this sangie, but the store had none left, so I substituted portuguese rolls. (FYI - ciabatta is Italian for slipper) Tear out the insides of the rolls and place in the broiler. While the rolls are toasting, crush a few garlic cloves, add them to a small pot with butter, and melt. 

Serve: Pour the butter and garlic on both sides of the toasted bread and grate some of the parmigiano reggiano. Place a nice amount of the slaw on the bottom roll, top with the sausage and ENJOY!  

BTW: If you'd like to eat healthier, substitute chicken sausage and don’t use butter. I'd suggest as soon as the bread comes out of the broiler, grate, using the roll as the grater itself, a fresh piece of garlic on the crust instead.

Salsiccia Rigatoni

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Gimme Some Info: Salsiccia is Italian for sausage. So, here we have "Sausage Rigatoni". The word rigatoni comes from the Italian word rigati, which means “ridged” and is associated with the cuisine of southern and central Italy.

This is a fantastic family-style dish. Along with the pasta and sausage, comes sweet green peas, cherry tomatoes (although you can use various types of tomatoes as long they are in season, i.e, grape, campari and even heirloooms, but they would need to be on the smaller side), cannellini beans (which are white Italian kidney beans) and portabello mushrooms.

Preparation: To start this off, I added garlic and shallots to olive oil. Next, I browned the sausage, then sweat out the mushrooms. In the meantime, I am boiling the rigatoni to slightly less than al dente, set the pasta to the side and preserve a bit of the pasta water. Next, I add vegetable stock, pasta water, tomatoes, then cover with lid. A few minutes before the tomatoes are about to burst, I add the pasta, peas and cannellini beans (they add a great texture to every bite) and allow it to cook in the sauce. Once heated and tomatoes burst, I add chili flake, toss and serve.