Chicken Scarpariello: A Gift for Gran Fran

There was a time that I couldn't deal with cooking things that had too many steps. I suppose I just became lazy at some point. Eventually, I came back around to the thrill of the multiple step recipe, that involves measuring cups and spoons and even multiple knives for different ingredients. It dawned on me that Gran Fran just keeps cooking, no matter how much mess, how many pots and pans or how long it'll take. If there is a recipe that needs to be made, she will make it no matter what.

This year, for her birthday,one of my sisters asked me to shoot and make a bunch of Gran Fran's recipes so we could make her a nice little book as a gift. I didn't have much time, only a week and a half, so I tried to choose recipes that would be relatively easy to work through.

A quick look through Gran Fran's blog, revealed to me that many of the recipes, though simple, involve many steps and ingredients. So much for making this project easy. Though it was challenging, due to time constraints (not to mention that Gran Fran planned a last-minute trip that landed mid-deadline, making me stop my work, so as to not ruin the surprise gift that was to come a few weeks later), I really did enjoy working on these recipes.

The recipes I chose all turned out really well, flavor-wise, I think, because of the many layers of flavor. For this Chicken Scarpariello, the hot cherry peppers offset the sweet fennel sausage nicely. The steps are simple, there are just a lot of them. But, the end result is totally worth it.

original recipe from The Italian Pantry, Fran Claro's Food Blog

Chicken Scarpariello

Serves six

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, quartered
• One 4-pound chicken, well rinsed, dried, cut into 10 pieces
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 pound sweet sausage with fennel, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 4 to 7 hot cherry peppers in vinegar, diced
• 1 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

Method:

• Add chicken to pan; sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. 
• Brown chicken thoroughly on allsides.
• Remove chicken from pan; set aside.
• In same pan, saute sausage until cooked through
• To pan, add diced peppers, including seeds; stir.
• Remove sausage andpeppers from pan; set aside.
• Add wine to panand reduce by half; add broth.
• Stir all scrapings from bottom of pan into the wine and broth.
• Return all ingredients to pan; bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat; cover closely.
•  Simmer 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
• Remove sausage and chicken from pan; set aside.
• Over medium heat, reduce sauce until it coats a spoon.
• Pour sauce over chicken; serve with mashed potatoes.

The Perfect Breakfast

I have found a breakfast that Ms Iz loves: the Egg Sandwich.

You'd think I would have tried this with her a long time ago, but it just occurred to me two weeks ago that she'd love just a plain omelet, cooked very thin, sandwiched between toasted white bread. She added ketchup (which she now says is good on everything, including sauteed mushrooms).

For me, I made a habanero chicken sausage alongside my eggs. No bread for me. I've been staying away from gluten (and a whole bunch of other stuff), so stick to proteins, greens, fruits and nuts these days.

Ms Iz has been hilarious about my new(ish) dietary restrictions, stating, that I basically don't eat anything anymore. She's onto something. The foods not-on-the-list any longer include: gluten, dairy, soy, alcohol, caffeine, red meat.

Let me be clear, all dairy except for Butter is off the list (yes, I meant to give butter an uppercase B, it's that important to me). I have not replaced any of the dairy or meat with substitutes, and since there is nothing that compares to real butter, I am still eating it.

Soy is present in so many things, it's next to impossible to eliminate it, especially with my love of all foods Asian. But, I try very hard not to eat too much of it.

I've been eating like this since October, 2011 (with a renewed commitment this past March) and it truly makes me feel better. I'm not anti any foods (except cilantro, blue cheese and lamb), but for me this new way of eating is working out. That's not to say I don't give in and eat the things I love when they are presented to me, I've just adjusted the way I cook on a day-to-day basis to exclude most of these ingredients.

And so, new types of recipes to follow, but let me tell you, they are all delicious and still quite decadent!

i'll give you a sauce

I made a red sauce tonight. It wasn't, as my mother would call it, a real Ragu, since I made it without meat. I do believe that Gran Fran (my mom, for those of you who are new to this blog) thinks it's a crime to make the sauce without meat. But, these days, a girl has got to watch what she eats, and a heaping bowl of sweet Italian sausage, ground beef and braccioli are not on my list right now. So sad, but true.

The sauce in question uses many of the same techniques and ingredients as Gran Fran's (see the two recipes below), but mine has twice as much red wine, half the tomatoes and way more garlic. So, I hope she is pleased with my take on her classic, but I fear her wrath when she sees this post.

One thing I always do the same, is use a can of whole, peeled tomatoes (preferably from the San Marzano area) and smash them through a sieve or a strainer. It brings back very clear childhood memories.

As the youngest of the 5 kids, I ended up doing tasks that didn't require knives (of which there were only butter knives anyway, but more on that in a later post), fire (of which I was petrified until I was in my 20's) or heavy pans to lift. Thus, I ended up more often than not as the tomato smasher. Which, I know, sound super fun, especially since it involved sticking your hands in lots of smushy tomatoes.

But, it was inevitable that I always had a small scratch or cut on either or both of my hands. And, as a reader of this blog, Non-Reactive Pan, you will understand that the acid in the tomatoes burned my hands like no other. Then, to top it off, as the tomato smush dried, I got some sort of skin treatment (like a facial only horrible) which always left my skin dried out and smelling like tomatoes for days.

To this day, though, you will find me in my kitchen smashing tomatoes through the sieve for the sauce, all the while cursing the burning of my skin. In the end, it is always worth it, though the sauce tastes different from Gran Fran's, it's essence is the same as hers, and so it always brings me home.

Red Sauce ala Fran's Daughter serves 8

• 4 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• Bay Leaf
• 2 tsps Tomato Paste
• 1 1/2 cup Red Wine
• 1 can whole, peeled tomatoes, pushed through a sieve, solids discarded

you will need a large, NON-REACTIVE saucepan with a lid.

• Heat the olive oil until hot, but not smoking.
• Put the fennel, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and bay leaf in the olive oil.
• Just when the spices start to brown and pop, add the tomato paste.
• Keeping the flame on high, stir constantly, for about 2 minutes.
• Pour in the strained tomatoes and the wine.
• Bring the whole thing to a boil.
• Lower heat to a simmer and put the cover on, leaving a vent for steam to release.
• Stir every 10 minutes to ensure it doesn't stick.
• After 40 minutes, remove the sauce from the heat and eat!

Serve with pasta, or use this for pizza sauce or even just for dipping bread in. Oh, and, again, please remove the bay leaf before serving.

Red Sauce ala Gran Fran serves 8

• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
• 2 cans whole, peeled tomatoes, pushed through a sieve, solids discarded
• 1 cup Red Wine
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• 1/2 tsp Basil
• 1/2 tsp Rosemary
• Bay Leaf

you will need a large, NON-REACTIVE saucepan with a lid.

• Heat the olive oil until hot, but not smoking.
• Brown the garlic in the olive oil.
• Add the tomato paste.
• Pour in the strained tomatoes and the wine and stir well
• Add all the remaining spices.
• Bring the whole thing to a boil.
• Lower heat to a simmer and put the cover on, leaving a vent for steam to release.
• Stir every 10 minutes to ensure it doesn't stick.
• After 30 minutes, add the sausage (recipe below).
• Simmer with meat for up to 3 hours, then enjoy!

Sausage for Red Sauce ala Gran Fran serves 8

• 1 cup Red Wine
• 1 1/2 Lbs Sweet or Hot Italian Sausage, pierced

you will need a large, NON-REACTIVE saucepan.

• Heat the wine until boiling.
• Add the sausages, turning after 5 minutes.
• Once the fat starts to emerge from the sausages, lower the heat and saute the sausages until cooked through.
• Add to sauce and continue to cook as in above recipe.