Winter Sausage Giambotta

With Joanne Avallon

It is quick, easy and proves again that there seems to be no limit to the various ways that Italian peasant food can be made to taste delicious. A giambotta is an Italian stew, particularly hearty and good for the winter months. It can be vegetarian or with meat, but Joanne Avalaon prepares one of her family recipes the way they made it growing up in an Italian household, made with sweet Italian sausage seasoned with fennel.

You start by putting some orecchiette or similar pasta on to boil and then sautéing diced garlic, carrots, celery and onion in olive oil. Joanne adds sweet Italian sausage but you can use whatever meat you have, even if it was left over and already cooked. Add chopped tomatoes from the can (Joanne prefers San Marzano tomatoes), some red wine, and a tablespoon of tomato paste as it cooks a little more. Then add some cannelloni beans and fresh spinach (you can add another green if you wish). Let spinach wilt and, if it is too dry, add a little of the water used to cook the pasta.

Ingredients

1 pound orecchiette (or similar pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, diced
¼ cup carrots, diced
¼ cup celery, diced
¼ cup onion, diced
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
 ½ can chopped tomatoes (San Marzano recommended)
12 ounce can cannelloni beans
4 ounces baby spinach (Swiss chard or kale can be substituted but will need to be cut into smaller pieces)
½ cup red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup pasta water (reserved from pasta pot)
optional: 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)

Instructions

1. Put water on to boil and add pasta when ready.
2. In large pan sauté garlic, carrots, celery, and onion until soft. Add sausage, crumble, and cook until no longer pink.
3. Add tomatoes, wine, and tomato paste and mix with rest of ingredients over medium heat.
4. Then add some cannelloni beans and fresh spinach (you can add another green such as Swiss chard or kale if you wish but be sure to cut into smaller pieces since they are tougher). Let spinach wilt and, if it is too dry, add a little of the water used to cook the pasta.
5. Drain and add the cooked pasta right into the pan and mix before serving.

Recipe courtesy of  Joanne Avallon, 2010.

From Food For Thought column by Heather Atwood;

Joanne and I have known each other since high school; we've been teenagers together and now we are raising teenagers together, and we still laugh very hard about it all. With a law degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree, she is a very capable woman, but I think Joanne lights up, her shoulders relax and her humor rises to high tide when she's cooking and talking about her family, which is what she did on a shivering cold day in March when she came to my kitchen to make this torte.

This was always one of those foods the men in her family made, she told me, first her father and now her brother, John. (I should do a column on "mens' food:" Barbecue sauce. Chili. Rustic tortes. What is it about these things?) And she talked about pastry: Her family always used white wine in this crust, and Joanne didn't know until she read recently in Cook's Magazine that alcohol makes a crust more tender; Italian culinary wisdom validated by Christopher Kimball himself. Instead of water, Joanne now uses vodka in sweet pie crusts.

Contact Heather at heatheraa@aol.com. Her blog is at gloucestertimes.com/foodforthought