This might be just the dinner you need after all the indulging during the holidays. Imagine Italian chicken sausage, roasted caramelized fennel, roasted cauliflower, fresh spinach and olive oil coming together to orchestrate, flavor, texture and still be so good for you.

After eleven years of blogging, and 1200 recipes, I know what you’ll be looking for. You love easy, tasty, healthy dinner ideas.

In this collaboration, I chose the pre-cooked Al Fresco Italian chicken sausage and made an absolutely delicious dinner in twenty minutes.

I’ll tell you why easy big fat healthy dinners are important to Spinach Tiger. In addition to running this site, I have a keto home bakery, which has become quite successful.

I need food I can grab and make quickly that is good for me. This is the kind of dinner I thrive on.

Al Fresco Chicken Italian Sausage is Pre-Cooked

This  Chicken Sausage is pre-cooked, which means you can easily slice across and place on sheet pan or in the air fryer. No double cooking necessary, which is an amazing convenience. It’s lower in calories. Perfect for a quick, healthy, delicious mid-week meal!

I chose the Italian chicken sausage that already has red peppers in it, and it pairs nicely with the fennel. Everything in this sheet pan will be perfect in about twenty minutes. During the last two minutes, I throw the spinach over it evenly, and it cooks down. Then you simply toss it all together and pass the parmesan or pecorino romano cheese.

I added a heaping teaspoon of red chili peppers, and we loved that extra bit of heat. Serve that on the side if kids are eating this dish.

This dinner can be prepared two ways:  Sheet Pan or Air Fryer or Air Fryer. I made this twice using both methods and it was so delicious both ways that we fought over the last bite.

This is one of the few sheet pan dishes where everything can be roasted at once.

That’s not always the case, but it’s been trendy and I know people want the easiest cooking option.

Al Fresco Italian Chicken Sausage is Perfect for an Air Fryer Recipe

However, I am a fan of the air fryer for some dishes. This is also one of those dishes that can be placed in the air fryer and made in ten minutes. My air fryer is a smaller version, and I did it in two batches, thus twenty minutes, but it’s passive cooking and the clean up is so easy.

I made this twice in one week to make sure I was certain of both cooking methods and there were no complaints. We loved this dish. It hits all of our notes for healthy, hearty, flavor, texture, and big fat healthy yum.

Ways to play around with Italian Chicken Sausage Dish

How do I replace the fennel? 

Fennel is one of my favorite crunchy veggies that is often made as a salad with a citrus. I love it braised or roasted, as it has a slight licorice note adds much to a sausage dish.

You can use celery, sliced thinly across. You can also add in more cauliflower if fennel is not your thing.

How do I replace the spinach? 

First of all use fresh spinach and only add it in at the end. You can replace with kale or swiss chard if you want a different green.

Melt Mozzarella Cheese

Sometimes kids will grab onto cheesy casseroles easier, and you could always top with mozzarella and stick under the broiler for a few minutes.

Add in Rice or Pasta

Add a starch in the form of pasta or rice, especially if you are serving kids.

Make Pita Tacos

I like to get creative in the kitchen. Warm up some tacos and stuff with Al Fresco Sausage and Cauliflower for a twist.

More Low Carb Recipes Where You Could Use Al Fresco Italian Chicken Sausage 

The good news in making these recipes is that the sausage is already pre-cooked. A quick browning is all you need to do.

Low Carb Three Cheese Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Casserole 

Spaghetti Squash Casserole with Sausage and Mushrooms

Sausage Cabbage Soup

Sausage Frittata with Ricotta and Spinach

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Italian Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner

Chicken Sausage, Fennel, Cauliflower, Spinach made in air fryer or sheet pan. (Low Carb)

Course dinner

Cuisine Italian

Keyword air fryer,, caulfilower, chicken sausage,, sheet pan,

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 package Al Fresco Italian Chicken Sausage 4 links
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 bulb fennel thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil may use less
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes optional
• 2 tablespoons pecorino romano cheese or parmesan

Instructions

• Slice sausage across into 1/4 inch discs.
• Cut core out of cauliflower. Cut cauliflower into small pieces.
• Cut off tops and end of fennel bulb. Slice Fennel into strips
• Slice onion into thin strips.
• Toss the vegetables with olive oil, just enough to glisten.

Sheet Pan Method

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Spread vegetables and sausage evenly on sheet pan.
• Roast for 20 minutes, turning over at ten minutes.
• Add handfuls of spinach over the ingredients in pan.
• Bake for another three minutes until the spinach in wilted.
• Serve with Pecorino Romano and crushed red pepper flakes.
• Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Air Fryer Method

• You can mix all meat and vegetables together, except for the spinach.
• Roast in two batches for ten minutes each, until sausage looks browned.
• Toss fresh spinach into the ingredients. It will wilt naturally.
• Serve with Pecorino Romano and crushed red pepper flakes.

The post Italian Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner, Air Fryer Option appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This post contains amazon affiliate links that earn a small commission, but do not affect your price.  

This is the salad that got me hooked on kale.I have now posted so many recipes on kale but wanted to come back and share with you where it all started.

This little chopped kale salad changed my green life forever.

There was a time 30 recipes ago or so, that I did not eat or like kale. I tell you this because you might be uncomfortable with certain vegetables and think you are the only one. You might be under the false impression that  “those foodies eat everything, know how to cook everything, and are all encompassing rock stars in the kitchen.”

The truth is that even food bloggers have foods we are unfamiliar with, didn’t grow up, and maybe are even a tad bit afraid of.

But, with a name like Spinach Tiger, I need to conquer all things green.  After all green anything is so chic,  it’s the new little black dress of instagram.

Kale, as beautiful as it is, has always baffled me. I tried to make kale chips once,  which ended up in the trash followed by a nice big empty bag of kettle cooked potato chips. I couldn’t enjoy them the way I read I was supposed to in about in every cool, hip or not so hip food and life style blog. (That doesn’t mean I won’t try again some day in far distant future).

It makes no sense at all that my love for kale would start at a sports bar/restaurant that has five different kinds of french fries, but it’s true.

Someone very smart at the Tavern in Nashville put a chopped kale salad on the menu. I ate the whole bowl right along with my french fries. How’s that for split personalities?

I don’t remember the  fries.  I remember the tuscan chopped kale salad.

It was spiked (and I used the word spiked on purpose) with lemon, lots and lots of lemon and some parmigiano reggiano cheese. I was hooked, and the very next day, I went searching for the freshest kale I could find. If  you read my roasted okra post, I got lucky and and bought two beautiful bunches from a vegetable stand ready to close.

Chopped Kale Salad starts with Lacinato Kale

I remembered how the salad tasted and  I set to work chopping and chopping (using a mezzaluna) and spinning and spinning in the salad spinner, as kale seems to have a lot of water in it.

The dressing was easy. Extra virgin olive oil, lemon and more lemon, a splash of pear vinegar, and an ingredient I thought should be added, crushed red pepper.  And, of course, the toasted almonds. I decided to use pecorino romano cheese in slivers rather than grated parmigiano reggiano. You can decide which one, as you long as it’s freshly grated.

Chopped Kale Salad is a Perfect for a Potluck

In my experiences, everyone loves a salad at a party. The chopped kale salad is perfect because you can dress it at home. It lasts all day without wilting. Trust me. People will thank you.

Am I now a kale convert? All the way, yes. (Although still holding out on the kale chips thing).

Oh I don’t need to tell you how healthy kale is do I?  I hope that doesn’t ruin it for you. I know that I started to immediately feel better within the first two bites. And, it doesn’t hurt that I bought it from the hands that grew it.

The texture of kale is hearty and takes well to an olive oil dressing and even gets better if chilled a few hours. It’s not mushy or slimy and maintains a certain crunch, which is always satisfying. Add to that more crunch from the toasted almonds and the zing of the lemon and crushed red pepper and you have an exciting healthy dish.

That year the salad gave me a chance to use one of my birthday presents. I received three different vinegars from Sparrow Lane, and the one I decided on here was the D’anjou Pear.

Kale Chopped Salad Loves a very Acidic Zesty Vinaigrette

I have a thing for vinegars of all kinds and I have about 10 vinegars in my pantry, so stay tuned to hear about the other two, walnut champagne and  peach champagne vinegar.  All three are very different, very smartly balanced.  I chose the pear because it goes well with lemon and pecorino, but I also like their golden balsamic. I wouldn’t use regular balsamic because it won’t have enough punch. I used lots of lemon and you could stick with that, but the added hit of vinegar not only aids in breaking down the kale fibers, but gives the necessary zing that a kale salad needs.

Heidi Swanson of  101 cookbooks has a very similar recipe where instead of almonds she uses toasted breakcrumbs, another great way to get that added crunchy texture and a marked Italian profile.

Since my original first kale salad post, I have made many kale salads. One of the crowd favorites goes a different route with apple, sweet potatoes, cranberries, and maple pecans.

So tell me, is there a vegetable out there you have been afraid to try? If you say turnips, I can change your mind on that too.

More Kale Recipes from Spinach Tiger

More Salad Recipes from Spinach Tiger

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Chopped Kale Salad with Toasted Almonds

A raw kale salad with Tuscan flavors.

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• juice of one large lemon
• 1 teaspoon pear vinegar or use a white wine vinegar
• 1 small clove garlic crushed
• sea salt black pepper to taste
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper or to taste
• Sea salt black pepper
• Small chunk of Pecorino Romano

Instructions

• Salad Dressing: Crush garlic clove, place in olive oil for 10 minutes. Remove.
• Squeeze lemon in small bowl, add vinegar, and slowly add in olive oil and salt and pepper.
• Rinse kale, roughly chop and dry with salad spinner or paper towels.
• Chop finely using a mezzaluna or chef's knife.
• Toss with salad dressing, cheese, toasted almonds and crushed red pepper.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Top with very thin slices of Pecorino Romano, using sharp knife or mandolin

The post Chopped Kale Salad with Toasted Almonds appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This is quintessentially “Sicilian.” They (we) love our eggplant, especially when made spicy and served with spaghetti.

My grandfather, Biaggio, was born in Isnello (a commune outside of Palermo), and I had the pleasure to eat two eggplant dishes prepared by his my family there on our travels to Sicily. This is a Marcella Hazan recipe and was first published here in November 2010.  It was time for an update with new pictures.

The eggplant is fried, left chunky, and tossed with spaghetti. I chose this gluten free pasta, but you can choose whatever you like.

Spicy Eggplant Sauce with Spaghetti

Isnello a Village outside of Palermo
When we visited Isnello, we were served two kinds of eggplant that had that perfect char that I’ve never been able to replicate.

The village of Isnello has an elevation only second to Mount Etna. The infrastructure has hardly been touched in centuries except for the remodeling of kitchens and bathrooms. Laundry is still hung outside up on  the forth floor of narrow, yet pristine homes that often have two kitchens.

My family owns a bed and breakfast home on the mountainside, just across the town. The views are spectacular, breathtaking and not like any I’ve witnessed here in the states.

The setting is a bit surreal, because the town is small and remote, with it’s own cheese shop, butcher and baker. It feels a bit isolated and insulated, yet it is a mere 30 minute drive to the beach and Palermo. The drive is quite a climb, breathtaking (a bit scary) and awesome.  This is a the first time I’ve used that word “awesome” correctly.

Untouched for generations, yet there are cell phones and satellite dishes, but I doubt there are microwave ovens.

I might hang my laundry out too if this was my view doing it.

The everyday view of spectacular Isnello, Sicily.

A Word about the Mafia.

People often ignorantly ask me if my family is in the mafia. You must know that this is a highly insulting question. There is nothing glamorous about organized crime, thugs, murder and the exploitation of the small merchant who must pay a large “protection fee” to thieves.

I’m a huge advocate of the small merchant, farmer, and restaurant owner. There is nothing glamorous living under siege.

The beautiful, warm, kind people of Sicily are not proud of the reputation of the few thugs that sweep their country and they are especially hurt and insulted to be asked if they are part of this darkness, as if it’s something to be proud of. I suppose our American culture that was captivated by the Sopranos is part of the blame.

The families living here born who are born in Sicily are appalled that Americans find that attractive. While we with some Sicilian blood are known to have a bit of a temper, most of us believe in God and follow his ways. After we have our little tirade, we get over it quickly, and cook up a nice meal and with a genuine and warm smile.

I started this post merely to talk about eggplant and reflecting back to my visit to Sicily struck a nerve. Now back to the food.

As I was eating my cousin’s eggplant, my question was “Why can they get that perfect char on a grilled eggplant and I can’t?” It must be part of the Sicilian heritage.

Spicy Eggplant sauce with spaghetti demonstrates how easy it is for Italians to put real food on the table  in thirty minutes.

This must be where I get my “quick fire” talents. While it’s nice to follow long, laborious recipes once in a while, it’s not me; it’s not realistic. I’m a gal who likes to have my hands in so many things at once that it’s nothing for me to be cooking and painting a room at the same time.

This recipe comes from Marcella Hazan’s Cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, my all time favorite cookbook.

This is the perfect going into Fall dish. Tell me, what is the comfort food you most crave this time of year (besides turkey)?

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Spaghetti with Spicy Eggplant Sauce and Isnello, Sicily

Marcella Hazan's Spicy Eggplant Tomato Sauce for pasta.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• large canned imported Italian tomatoes
• chopped hot red chili pepper to taste
• 1 pound pasta

Instructions

• Peel Eggplant. Slice eggplant into medium slices. Salt, and allow to sit on paper towels. This will remove the water from eggplant and make frying much easier. Press moisture out using paper towels.
• Cut into 1 1/2 inch slices, fry in very hot oil. Cut into pieces. Drain again with paper towels.
• Saute garlic in olive oil until golden.
• Add tomatoes, parsley, chili pepper, salt and stir, simmering for about 25 minutes. Add cooked eggplant, cook a few more minutes.
• Cook pasta (spaghetti works best) al dente according to directions. Add spaghetti to the hot sauce to finish the last minute of cooking. This helps to marry the pasta and sauce.
• Serve with extra chili pepper on side. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

The post Spaghetti with Spicy Eggplant Sauce and Isnello, Sicily appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

How are you my very nice readers? Can I tell you something?

You really are a nice crew of people. I get the sweetest emails from you, and I’m floored that you take the time to let me know you enjoyed a recipe. It means a lot to me in our world where everything moves so fast.

I notice many millennials are embracing food the way I do, the way I was taught.  I almost see some as finding their way back from a childhood of fast food and boxed mac and cheese.

If you were a child of my grandmother’s generation, you were thinner, ate at home more often and ate as a family.

If you were at the home of my paternal grandmother, you would be eating this southern fried chicken, and this macaroni and cheese. You would still be skinny.  Carbs were different then and I don’t know why, maybe because the food was made from scratch and milk came via the milkman.

If you were at my maternal grandmother’s house, you would be eating dishes like quick minestrone soup and this spicy shrimp with olives over spaghetti.  My mother and my aunt grew up thin, eating spaghetti and Italian bread all the time.

She was a hair stylist and beauty shop owner.  She cooked fast. She cooked smart. She always cooked healthy. She was very influential in my life. At the time, I wanted to eat  junk food, but I never forgot her lectures and the way she quickly moved in the kitchen. She would grab the garlic, onions, olives and in mere minutes have food on the table.

Spicy Shrimp with Olives is Fast and Smart

You have a lot of options here. You can use fresh tomatoes, as I did. I made this in the summer, and tomatoes were more than plentiful right from the farm. I had more than I knew what to do with.

Like my grandmother, I grabbed some olive oil, garlic, shallots, cooked those little tomatoes right on the stove until they broke down into a sweet sauce.  If you don’t have fresh cherry or grape tomatoes, use canned tomatoes (I prefer Cento San Marzano). I added red pepper flakes, because I like spice with shrimp.

I used a topping of pistou, which is optional.  Pistou is a Provencal condiment, made with basil and olive oil, often layered on top of a summer vegetable soup. It’s really nice on shrimp dishes.

You can serve this with pasta. I used zucchini to make zoodles because we had plenty of zucchini.

This is not a fancy dish, or a complicated dish. It’s just an easy, flavorful dish that we make over and over again.

More Spinach Tiger Shrimp Recipes Here.

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Italian Spicy Shrimp with Olives

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups grape tomatoes see notes
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil divided
• 1 tablespoons capers optional
• 2 medium shallots finely diced (or 1/2 sweet onion)
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes or chopped hot red chili pepper
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 pound wild shrimp shelled, cleaned, deveined
• 2 large zucchini
• 6 olives (see notes)

Pistou (see recipe here)

Instructions

• Put an x in each end of the grape tomatoes. Toss with a teaspoon of olive oil.
• Put in shallow baking pan, and bake for 20 minutes 350 degrees. You may need to roast for an extra five minutes, depending on size.
• Sauté shallots and garlic in olive oil. Add pepper flakes and parsley.
• Rinse shrimp several times in cold water. Pat dry.
• Add shrimp to the frying pan. Cook just until shrimp are pink. (about 3 minutes). Remove shrimp. Set aside.
• In meantime, spiral zucchini and add to the pan. You will need to add more olive oil at this time.
• Cook, stirring frequently, until the zucchini is softened.
• Toss in roasted tomatoes and shrimp.
• Taste for seasoning.
• Add more heat in the form of red pepper flakes if desired.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Add in Pistou, if desired. If you don’t have time to make pistou, add basil leaves or extra parsley.

Notes

Use any kind of olives except black ripe olives. Italian olives are good, either green or black.
Regarding tomatoes, if you don’t have access to good tomatoes, you can use canned tomatoes.

The post Italian Spicy Shrimp with Olives over Zoodles appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Once Spinach Tiger is coming at you with a big fat healthy chicken pasta dish. Thai Peanut Noodles are naturally gluten free and the Thai peanut sauce recipe uses tamari, which is gluten free.

The Chicken Skewer Recipe is so Versatile

The sauce can be used for this noodle dish, just for chicken skewers, for chicken tenders, for veggies, or anything else that takes your imagination. You could even put it on these meatballs. I took the inspiration from my thai peanut salad dressing and thought this would be so good in a pasta dish.

The recipe itself has a lot of flavor and a lot of texture from the vegetables and the chopped peanuts. It was hard not to go back for seconds.

The key to a chicken skewer recipe is marinating them at least for an hour with an acid, preferably lime with olive oil and salt. They only take a few minutes on a grill on each side.

Thai Peanut Noodles Offer Lots of Options

You could skip the grill and pan fry your tenders, or add in chicken breasts. You could also replace the chicken with shrimp as another option.

If you like these flavors, you’ll probably love this Ginger Roasted Salmon with with Orange Ginger Beets.

This has been part of my healthy chicken pasta series, cooking big fat healthy food.

Watch Spinach Tiger behind the scenes in the kitchen on my instagram stories. Follow me there and see the fun before the post, and sometimes my kitchen fails.

I’ll be doing facebook live at least on a weekly basis, sharing tips, recipes, and answering cooking questions that you write in. Please feel free to write any questions in the comments or email me and be sure to follow me on facebook.

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Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken Skewer Recipe

Thai Peanut Noodles with chicken skewers in a hearty gluten free dish with lots of flavor and spice.

Course Entree

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken Skewers

• 4 -6 chicken tenders see notes
• juice of one lime
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or another tablespoon olive oil
• salt pepper for seasoning
• 1 package rice noodles
• 1 red bell pepper seeded, cut into thin two inch strips
• 1 serrano pepper seeded, sliced
• 2 cups snow peas
• !Thai peanut sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts
• 2 scallions sliced
• cilantro for garnish
• lime slices for garnish
• red chili flakes if you want to add extra heat
• !Thai Peanut Sauce
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari Sauce
• 1 large garlic clove minced
• 2 tablespoons honey
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup peanut butter peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes ground red pepper or 1/2 teaspoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• splash rice vinegar

Instructions

• Mix lime juice and olive together. Marinate the chicken tenders for at least one hour to overnight.
• If using bamboo skewers, soak in water for 30 minutes to prevent burning.
• Place on skewers, grill over medium low heat for about 4 minutes per side.
• In the meantime, prepare sauce, boil water for rice noodles.
• Place 1 tablespoon olive oil, coconut oil in a pan, and stir fry red bell pepper and snow peas until cooked through.
• Cook rice noodles according to package directions.
• Drain rice noodles, toss with half of the sauce.Reserve some sauce for pouring over chicken.
• Garnish with scallions, cilantro, diced serrano and lime.
• Add skewers to each bowl.

Thai Peanut Sauce Instructions

• Mix all ingredients together. Heat on very low heat on top of the stove. You may find you need to add a little water to thin the sauce down if it's too thick.

Notes

Serving size includes on large chicken tender. You can adjust this amount of meat.
You can get either 4 or 6 servings.

The post Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken Skewer Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

It’s till being debated on how this recipe was developed, as there are both Italians and Americans who stake claim to the recipe. The Williams Sonoma cookbook states that it was created by an Italian chef in Rome who made it for a vodka company wishing to promote vodka in Italy. That makes the most sense to me, as the onion and short cooking time reminds me of another famous Italian red sauce that Rome is known for.

It may be hard to believe that this is my first time making vodka sauce yet it’s been on my 2013 white board all year. I have a board with dishes I want to feature on Spinach Tiger, and I wanted to make vodka sauce. It has fallen out of favor in today’s culinary world but I have a thing for retro food, and it’s time to breathe some life back into it, in case you weren’t around in the 80’s when it was on every Italian menu in the States.

Amanda of Dancing Veggies  has vodka sauce on her blog, and I was reinspired to give it a go when I was assigned her blog to choose a dish to cook from for the Secret Recipe Club. Each month, we are assigned to select a recipe from a another food blogger and then we all reveal on the same day. If you see the links below you will see all the participants.

Amanda is a young newlywed who admirably taught herself to cook when her mother told her if she wanted something different, she’d have to cook it herself. She was a teen then, and set out to make food taste good for her own taste buds. My kind of girl, and maybe more moms should do this or whatever it takes to get children and teens to cook in the kitchen. You all know how passionate I am about that.

I didn’t follow her recipe exactly. Amanda used fresh tomatoes because she had far too many in her garden. She uses yogurt and , while I think that’s a brilliant idea, as there area few good Indian dishes that combine yogurt with tomato sauces, I chose heavy cream and added in a bit of butter in addition to the olive oil. While you’ll probably never see me eat a krispy kream donut, I’m a bit old school when it comes to butter and cream as both can smooth out a tomato sauce. I admit to also being a little heavy handed with the vodka both in and out of the sauce. Shhhh.

Penne Pasta is the typical pasta used to hold the thick creamy sauce, but I had vodka sauce on pizza last year in Memphis,  and it was quite memorable.  I still come from the camp that believes butter and cream are good ingredients to cook with and much healthier than anything jarred, canned, or processed. Of course, the tomatoes were San Marzano certified, as that is where I do my budget splurging. I hope you can find the irony in that I used it for some spaghetti squash for a light dinner last week and I do encourage you to use your creativity. Penne pasta is just the start of the places vodka sauce can travel.

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Penne Alla Vodka

Vodka Tomato cream sauce with penne pasta 1 tsp fresh parsley 1 tbsp fresh basil 2 tbsp greek yogurt (coconut or cow – soy tends to give a bad aftertaste)

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 onion diced
• 2 32 ounce cans whole San Marzano tomatoes
• 1/2 cup vodka
• handful fresh parsley
• few fresh basil leaves if you have it, don’t use dried
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup parmesan cheese freshly grated
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 pound of penne pasta

Instructions

• Heat olive oil in sauce pan. Put in onion and garlic until onion is softened, but don’t let garlic burn.
• Chop tomatoes and add tomatoes and juice into pot.
• Add in fresh herbs such as parsley and basil (remove later)
• Cook for twenty minutes.
• Add in vodka and cream.
• Stir, simmering on low for twenty more minutes.
• Stir in a 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Add in crushed red pepper
• Cook pasta to a few minutes before pasta is done.
• Drain pasta reserving 1/3 cup of pasta water.
• Add pasta to sauce. You might also add in pasta water if needed.
• Finish cooking pasta in the sauce.
• Serve with more parmesan cheese

The post Penne alla Vodka appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Tuscan Kale Salad with raisins, almonds, Pecorino, all dressed up in a lemony salad dressing might make one ask what the fuss about kale is all about.

Kale is trendy. Kale is healthy. Kale is a super food. Kale is here to stay. Kale is versatile.

These are all true statements. But notice that I didn’t say kale tastes good and I’ll tell you why.

Kale, in and of itself, is a rough, tough, grassy green, friendlier than turnip greens or mustard greens, but not as friendly as raw spinach. However, when marinated in a salad dressing, I find it superior to spinach for a salad. Raw spinach sometimes leaves a film in your mouth and cooked spinach cooks down to nothing.  Kale does neither. Also, Kale can be dressed hours in advance, and it holds its shape. Even overnight.

Make a kale smoothie or put kale in the right  salad dressing  and kale is transformed.

While much of God’s good produce can be eaten all by itself when it’s picked, such as a carrot or an apple, kale needs to dressed with a bit of fat and acid. Once, kale is understood and properly attended to, it takes on an unusual seductive charm.

Here in the Southeast of America, kale has become the “it” salad. It’s hard to find a restaurant that doesn’t serve it, and this salad was featured in the supper club I participated in. Kale has gone mainstream in an era of people rushing to eat sensible farm food that can be elevated to gourmet status. Kale is performing well with its new found popularity and nearly every day I hear about a convert, someone who used to hate kale and now eats it all the time. (I was one of those).

The Tuscan Kale Salad

This is a sexy kale salad because the salt in the pecorino and the heat in the cracked chili pepper mingle together with the acid in the lemon to make you want to take one more bite and then one more bite. It’s similar to the kale salad I made here, but I added in pecorino cheese and raisins for texture. This is the side salad to serve when you’re grilling boneless chicken breast. The aroma of toasted almonds and the lemony dressing and Pecorino hit your nose first. The almonds give crunch, the raisins some sweet chewy texture and the pepper flakes add zing, while the shavings of Pecorino Romano bring in perfection as yet another layer of flavor.

This is so good, you might just want to add in some chicken or shrimp and call it a main course summer dinner.  Be sure to use genuine Pecorino Romano and leave it out for at least twenty minutes before you shave it. It’s very salty and flavorful. You can use a good Parmesan as a substitute, and on the milder side, even a Manchego cheese would work. It won’t have the same bite as a Pecorino Cheese, but goes well with a lemony dressing.

So tell me, have you gotten on the kale band wagon yet? Do you have a favorite kale salad? Leave a link if you do.

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Tuscan Kale Salad, Raisins, Almonds, Pecorino, Lemony Salad Dressing

How Italians eat a kale salad, olive oil, lemon, toasted almonds, raisins, chile flakes with a zesty lemony dressing, showered with Pecorino Romano

Course Salad and Salad Dressing

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4

Author Angela Pomone Roberts

Ingredients

• SALAD DRESSING
• 1 small clove garlic cut in quarters
• 1 tablespoon of lemon
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper chili flakes
• 1 one bunch of Lacinato kale ribs removed, chopped finely
• 1/4 cup golden raisins regular raisins or even dried cranberries will do
• 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
• 1 ounce of Pecorino Romano Cheese
• sea salt
• black pepper

Instructions

• dd garlic clove and chile to olive oil and let sit for twenty minutes or longer. Remove garlic. Mix vinegar and lemon. Slowly add olive oil to lemon mixture.
• Toss chopped kale leaves with half of the dressing. Add more as needed. add in raisins, toasted almonds.
• Using a mandolin or cheese grater, slice paper thin slices of pecorino over the salad.
• Season with salt and pepper.

The post Tuscan Kale Salad, Raisins, Almonds, Pecorino, Lemony Salad Dressing appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This is all dressed up food crack. One bite and you’re hooked, because it’s a food experience that wakes up your senses and brings a lot of satisfying texture. Anchovies, crushed red pepper, garlic, capers, kalamata olives and Italian parsley come together to create a spicy, sultry, fabulous dish.

While Ahi Tuna is usually prepared with Asian flavors, Ahi works very well with a Mediterranean profile because it’s mild of flavor,  yet meaty, bringing an incredible texture and balance to bigger, bolder flavors.  It has a lot of heat, salt, and acid. The anchovy sauce by itself could be a bit overwhelming, but put it with pasta and back it up with a hazelnut crusted Ahi Tuna and everything balances out just wonderfully.

Once prepped, you can literally make this dish in under 15 minutes, but this is not fast food.  This is dinner party food.  This is a dish your friends will talk about and come back for more.

I’ve been meaning to make this dish that’s been in my head for over four years, but it took All-Clad to make it happen. When I agreed to create a recipe in exchange for receiving a 10 inch frying pan,  I knew it was time.  It  takes this kind of pan to make the dish and it takes this kind of  dish to show off this pan.

Why All Clad

Part of the joy of writing a blog is to inspire people back into the kitchen. I am serious about my cookware.  I had already been a huge fan of All-Clad and for good reason. I have the 12 inch frying pan and it’s the secret to my perfectly seared golden scallops.  My good fortune is that the ten inch pan had already been on my wish list, so I was not agreeing to accept something I wasn’t willing to purchase.

Before I talk recipe, I want to tell you why an All-Clad pan is a must in every kitchen. Made in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania with American steel, All-Clad is crafted to conduct heat evenly with no hot spots.  Even at a low temperature, you can sear scallops to golden perfection or prepare a piece of Ahi Tuna in two minutes. It will be your go to pan for a quick sauté a toasting of nuts, caramelizing onions, making a wine reduction, finishing a pasta dish, or searing a steak and putting it into the oven to finish. This pan will most likely be the hardest worker in your kitchen, as long as you know how to cook with it. Many cooks think that to get that beautiful sear, you have to turn the heat up high, splash hot oil all over your kitchen and set off the smoke alarms. Not so with All-Clad.

How to Cook with All Clad Frying Pans

All-Clad suggests preheating a pan on low to medium heat for one to two minutes and testing the upper edge heat of the pan. If it is to hot, remove for a few minutes to cool down. In a moderately hot pan, pour in 2 to 3 teaspoons of cold oil, just enough to cover the pan.  You want to hear a sizzle, not a crackle. The food should temporarily stick to the pan and needs to be left alone until it is ready to turn easily. The sugars in the food are caramelizing and the food will lift when you have a nice sear. When finished cooking, allow the pan to cool before immersing in water. Keep your pan looking brand new by using Bar Keeper’s Friend. However, your pan will not need a lot of maintenance if you stick with low to medium low heat.

Making the Dish

I put this recipe together with the idea of showing the versatility of the pan. I was able to toast the bread cubes, sear the tuna, make the olive anchovy sauce and finish the pasta dish all in the ten inch pan, and I made enough for four people to eat a medium sized portion.

First I made the bread crumbs by melting a little butter into the pan and cutting bread into very small cubes. If you use panko bread crumbs as an option, you can toast the crumbs in under a minute.

Next I made the tuna, first by turning the pan on medium low, and allowing it to heat before I put in the olive oil as suggested by All-clad. Once the tuna was made, and set aside, I used the pan to make the olive anchovy sauce, by melting in the anchovies, adding the crushed red pepper, parsley, chopped olives and capers, and garlic. The best part is the finish. Once the pasta is almost finished, it is drained (never rinsed) and tossed in the sauce to finish cooking, while maintaining a low heat.

Cooking Notes

• You could make the pasta without the tuna or you could substitute the tuna with seared scallops. But, this is truly an exciting and fresh way to incorporate a piece of Ahi Tuna into a dish.
• I used homemade breadcrumbs. You could substitute toasted panko bread crumbs, but be sure to toast them first (using this pan).
• I made a homemade pasta, but linguini or spaghetti would also be good choices.

Note: All-Clad provided this pan for this post.

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Ahi Tuna with Tagliatelle in an Olive and Anchovy Sauce

An Italian take on Ahi Tuna, with a spicy kalamata olive and anchovy sauce, homemade bread crumbs.

Servings 4

Ingredients

• BREADCRUMBS
• 2 pieces stale bread
• 2 teaspoons butter
• AHI TUNA
• 1/4 cup crushed hazelnuts
• 1 pound Ahi Tuna
• finely ground sea salt freshly ground black pepper
• OLIVE ANCHOVY SAUCE
• 1/3 cup olive oil plus 1 tablespoon for cooking fish
• 3 anchovies rinsed, patted dry
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper
• 6 kalamata olives seeded, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 4 tablespoons Italian parsley finely chopped, divided saving 1 tablespoon for garnish
• 1/2 pound pasta see note for recommendations
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Instructions

• I used a 10 inch all-clad frying pan for breadcrumbs, tuna and sauce, cleaning each time in between.
• BREADCRUMBS
• Cut bread into small cubes. Heat pan on low. Add butter, and when melted, add in bread cubes and pan fry until golden brown. Set aside.
• AHI TUNA
• Brush tuna with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and pack on hazelnuts on top and bottom of tuna.
• Heat 10 inch frying pan on medium low heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When oil is hot, add Ahi Tuna and sear one minute on each side. Set aside.
• Cook Pasta: Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to directions, short of 1 minute. Drain.
• OLIVE ANCHOVY SAUCE
• Heat 10 inch frying pan. Add 1/3 cup olive oil. When oil is hot, add anchovies and break up with wooden spoon, until they melt into the oil.
• Add in crushed pepper, capers, kalamata olives. Cook for one minute. Add in garlic, parsley. Add tuna to pan and turn over once just to get the flavors. Remove tuna to a platter.
• Add drained pasta to olive oil anchovy sauce and finish cooking on low heat for a minute until pasta is cooked.
• Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
• Put pasta on a serving platter. Toss with 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, crumbling some of the cubes with your hands. Top with tuna.
• Sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

Notes

For the pasta, you can use linguini, tagliatelle or a thick spaghetti. This will serve 4 medium portions or 2 large portions.

The post Hazelnut Crusted Ahi Tuna with Tagliatelle in Olive Anchovy Sauce appeared first on Spinach Tiger.