Monday, April 12, 2010

Italian Sausage Pie or, What to eat when you're bumed

Yesterday we came home from a beautiful spring day to find that our kitchen window had been forced open and our computers stolen (I'm uploading this post on an ancient laptop that has already crashed three times, won't work if you put in the battery, and needs its belly rubbed before going the sleep!) There's the inconvenience of losing computers and the danger of personal information on them falling into the wrong hands, but what is even more disturbing to me is that they entered through the kitchen - my sanctuary, the space from where I make my home... homey. And on top of that, my entire repertoire of recipes that I'd altered to my liking are gone. Gone!
Ah, well, I don't want to stay with these feelings, so a little comfort food will help, not just to eat, but to make, to fill my desecrated sacred space with warm, appetising aromas, to welcome light back into our home. I now have the opportunity to rebuild, rediscover and re-invent.
An old favourite is Italian Sausage Pie, a recipe I found on Recipezaar that is both delicious and comforting.

1 pie shell, blind baked, completely cooled
3/4 lb Italian sausage, sweet or hot
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion
3 eggs
1/2 cup crème fraîche, cream or milk
1 cup shredded mozzarella or Gruyère
Salt and pepper to taste
  1. Before turning on the heat under a skillet, add the oil and the onion. Remove the casing from the sausage and break up into crumbles in the skillet.
  2. Turn on the heat  and cook until the onions are soft and the sausage starts to brown. This is usually when most of the moisture from the sausage has evaporated. Drain any excess fat and  and spoon this mixture into the blind baked pie shell.
  3. Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat together the eggs and the cream, then mix in the cheese, salt and pepper; pour this over the sausage mixture.
  4. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes, or until the custard sets and it tests clean with a knife.
  5. Allow the pie to cool a few minutes before serving.

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