Getting By, Dreaming Big » Family

Foodie Wednesday: Fusilli with Sausage, Cabbage and Tomatoes

readerbean — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:12:31 +0000

Back when I was a child my brother was a super adventurous eater and my sister and I were super picky! The poor kid still do this day complains about eating grilled chicken marinated in italian dressing and skillet all the time. When it was his birthday every year he would ask my mom to make him “Savoy and Cabbage” (at least that’s what we called it when we were little). Of course my sister and I would only eat the sausage and pasta in Ragu sauce – hahaha! Well recently I decided I wanted to re-create the meal and see if I liked it in all of it’s glory. I couldn’t find savoy cabbage but it said you could use red cabbage in place of it.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped onion

1 1/2lb of Red Cabbage or Savoy Cabbage

10 oz ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or canned plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

salt and freshly ground pepper

10 oz sweet Italian suasage, skinned and crumbled

1 lb fusilli

I wish I could give credit to where my mom got this recipe, but as you can see I just have a photocopy of this recipe. I am by no means claiming that my mom or I came up with it. You can’t see it but my mom’s notes are all over the page. They read, “JP, Tim & I loved this dish. The girls ate plain pasta with sausage. Tim thought this was an 11.” I love recipes with mom notes on them, you know those are the good ones.

Directions

In a large frying pan, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring frequently, until lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and continue sauteing for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir well, cover the pan with the lid slightly ajar, and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates, about 40 minutes.

In a small frying pan heat the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 6 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large pot bring 5 qt salted water to a boil. Add the fusilli and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and arrange it on a warm platter. Pour the cabbage sauce over the pasta and toss well. Sprinkle with the sausage and serve piping hot.

Viola! I have to say that as an adult I LOVED this dish (sorry Mom!) It was savory and delicious. I bought the fusilli at an Italian market at Chelsea Market. This dish was incredibly filling so you don’t need much to have a satisfying meal and there was a lot leftover. It heated up well. I look forward to cooking this dish again and hopefully using Savoy cabbage next time.

Post in Comments:

Was there a dish your siblings loved that you hated growing up?

Congratulations Kate!

readerbean — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:31:19 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS TO MY LIL’ SIS!!!!

She ran her first marathon yesterday, the ING NYC Marathon! 26.2 miles, 5 burroughs, 5 bridges, and she smiled the whole way.

She finished in 4 hours and 27 minutes, rock star status!!! I’m so proud of her. In addition, she raised over $2600 for charity thanks to generous family and friends!!!!

Congrats to everyone who ran yesterday – what an amazing accomplishment for all!

GO KATE, GO!!!

Family to the Rescue!

readerbean — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:27:00 +0000

So as you all now my husband is incredibly hardworking. The hours he puts in are literally astounding sometimes and truthfully I don’t know how he still stands some days! I’m very good about entertaining myself during these many nights that he’s working away and I have to say that one of the best things about being back in the NYC area is that my family is here to keep me company!

This past weekend I had a three day weekend (woo-hoo!) and I was looking at 3 days on my own (quarter end is coming up people…)! So in an effort to try and see as much family as possible (not really…but that’s what went down) I got up off my butt and got out there. Here’s a breakdown of the weekend.

Friday morning I went out to Brooklyn and met up with my cousin’s wife and their little daughter Lucia who is only 8 weeks old (so precious!) We had breakfast out went to the park and then just hung out in their amazing apartment. Friday afternoon I had a few precious hours to myself to just putz around. Then in the evening I met up with my aunt & uncle and my little cousin Chris who is 8 years old. We had dinner at John’s Pizzeria, which was delish, then my aunt & uncle went off to see a broadway show and Chris & I ventured out into NYC. It was fun to hang out with a kid and get to do kid stuff. We went to Toy R Us in Times Square and rode the ferris wheel (he was none to pleased that we ended up in the Barbie car…oh well!) then it was on to ESPN Zone for some serious gaming. After about 2 hours there we went back to my apartment to watch baseball until his parents came to get him. I rarely get one-on-one time with Chris so this was such a treat!

Saturday my sister & her fiance and I went down to the Jersey Shore – yeah baby!!! The AVP Beach Volleyball tour was rolling through and I was so excited to see some action. If you remember Jon & I went last year out to Coney Island to watch and we had such a great time that I convinced my sis & Josh that they should check it out with me this year. We had such a great day at the beach. It was so nice to be outside all day, by the water, and just watching sports. The only bummer though was that that Top 3 women’s and men’s teams were at some Olympic Qualifier or something so we didn’t get to see them play – but it was cool because I got to see some other players I might not have focused on as much but who are still wicked good.

After a day of volleyball & sun we went to my aunt & uncle’s house down at the shore for dinner. It was so great to see them at a non-holiday outing! They cooked up an amazing meal and we sat around and chatted until pretty late and then it was time to drive back to the city.

Sunday the whole fam went out to Westchester for a little engagement party for my sister & Josh!

All in all it was crazy how much family I saw in three days but at the same time it was so great and I am very thankful that I’m surrounded by such wonderful peeps!!!

Congratulations to Matt & Karen!!!

readerbean — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:17:00 +0000

Sunday, October 28th began what would be for Jon and I the first marathon of three that we were cheering for in a week! We went down to Washington, DC on Saturday, October 27th in order to cheer for Matt & Karen on Sunday as they ran in the Washington, DC Marine Corp Marathon, their second this year.

We got up early on Sunday in order to be out at Mile 1 in time for the 8AM start. Our plan was to see them at Mile 1, Mile 12, Mile 14, Mile 19 and possibly the finish. The Marine Corps Marathon is a great marathon for a spectator – it loops so many times that it’s easy to see runners in multiple locations.

We ended up seeing them at Mile 1 and Mile 4 and then seeing Matt at Mile 12, 14 and 19. Getting to the finish proved just too difficult.

So a big CONGRATULATIONS to Matt and Karen on finishing the DC Marathon with fantastic times!

Wii = Weeeee!

readerbean — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:09:00 +0000

After all my excitement at Coney Island on Saturday, I spent a fun leisurely afternoon visiting with my brother and his girlfriend on Sunday. They had just purchased the new Wii Nintendo system and just like in the good ol’ days when we were kids my brother invited me over to play!
I had never played Wii before so I was excited and curious to see how it was going to work. They don’t have very many games: tennis, bowling, golf, baseball and boxing are part of a program that comes with Wii when you purchase it. Aside from that they purchased a game called Medal of Honor – it’s a WWII military game.

We started with tennis and while it took me a little while to figure out how to work it (my character was a little spastic!) I did later discover the “super serve!” We played every game except for boxing and it was such a great time! It really is a workout – in the middle of our baseball game I was literally sweating (as embarrassing as that is!) And on Monday my right shoulder was sore – hehehehe! I would definitely recommend checking it out if you know someone that owns the system.

After that we had lunch at this really cute restaurant called Say Cheese! on the corner of 45th and 9th. All their dishes are types of grilled cheese – fun! I had a delicious chicken, sauteed onion, avocado spread and cheese on sourdough bread – yum! It was a great place to grab a quick and yummy lunch – I would recommend it to those in the NYC area.

All in all it was just great to spend some quality time with my brother and his girlfriend!!!