Creamy Sweet Corn & Chicken Sausage Pasta
It’s sweet corn season!!!
I was so stoked when my CSA box this week included four ears of sweet corn. Fresh corn is the best. It can be a side dish, elevate even the most mundane pasta, and even become a dessert (and yes, you better believe this is happening in the near future).
In fact, I was so excited about the first corn of the season that I actually cooked on a Saturday night. That may not sound earth-shattering, but anyone who knows me knows that Saturday night is reserved for Chinese food. Specifically, one of three dishes from House of Chan five minutes from my house. I call at around 5:02, pick it up 15 minutes later, and am comfortably ensconced on my couch shortly thereafter. So for me to choose cooking on a Saturday night is pretty major.
And this pasta is totally worth it. The sweet corn, summer squash, and onions meld with the mascarpone, Parmesan, and starchy water to make a comforting yet not heavy-feeling chunky sauce that covers the noodles and sausage for the perfect pasta marriage. Add a little fresh basil and I’m in heaven. The fact that it all came together in less than half an hour? Even better.READ THE POST
Baked Fontina Pasta with Brussels Sprouts & Sage Breadcrumbs
Gooey, salty goodness—that’s what this recipe is in a nutshell. It is my sworn duty to share this amazingness with you.
I’ve had my eye on it for a couple months now, but just hadn’t found the right time to make it. I actually even started to make it one Sunday…bought the ingredients, pasta water boiling, started to shred the brussels sprouts. And then my craving for nachos became too much and I stopped mid-chop. Because the heart wants what the heart wants, and the heart wanted nachos. And the knifework still hurt because of my sprained thumb, which was my excuse.
But I definitely came back to it a few weeks later when the brussels sprouts looked good. And boy, was it worth it. Because this is the very definition of comfort food, and it’s so easy. It’s also surprisingly healthy for a cheesy pasta bake, since the bechamel is made with the starchy pasta water instead of the traditional milk. The result is a slightly thinner, silky sauce that clings to every crevice of your ruffly pasta, and doesn’t leave you feeling weighed down. And that’s a win-win.READ THE POST
Cheesy Sausage & Grit Casserole
Sorry, friends. There’s no way to make this dish look pretty in pictures. But it IS super yummy!
I’m always on the lookout for new breakfast casserole recipes for our Friday morning work breakfasts, particularly ones that don’t take a million different ingredients and a lot of assembly time (because let’s face it, I get home late). This one is is simple, affordable, and comes together super quickly.
Funny story about this recipe though…the original recipe instructions just say “boil salted water, then add grits”. Because my background is pasta, where you heavily salt the water (then, obviously, pour a lot of it out), I boiled the water and tossed a handful of salt in, and of course salted my sausage and added (salty) cheese. The result? So salty, it was almost inedible. It WAS kind of inedible, in my opinion. Lesson learned—follow the instructions on the package!READ THE POST