polish sausage spirale

Spirale is Polish for spirals, which, in Italian, is rotini. The sauce is Italian style and the Polish sausage is really made from Turkey in America. So what you get is an international mélange over mac-and-cheese.

• olive oil spray
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• ½ red bell pepper, in ½” strips
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 (14-oz) can crushed reduced salt tomatoes
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• ½ tsp beef base or ½ bouillon cube
• ½ tsp leaf oregano
• ½ tsp dried leaf basil
• 9 oz Jenny-O® Polish turkey sausage, sliced in ½” pieces
• 8 oz lower G. I. rotini (spiral) pasta
• 6 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 oz Velveeta® cheese product

Lightly spray a large pot or pan with olive oil and place it over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook them, stirring occasionally until tender, not brown, about 4-6 minutes.

Add tomatoes, wine, and spices to the pan, turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the sausage and simmer another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions, drain, add Velveeta®, and return to low flame until cheese melts.

Distribute cheesy pasta into bowls, top each with 1 cup of sauce, and sprinkle Parmesan over the top.

okra winfrey

This is Southern-style dish whose name came to me while I was tuning the television through an afternoon talk-show program (I can’t remember which one now). The dish is like a broadened-out jambalaya, in which chicken and seafood replace the jambon (ham), and carrot and sweet potato are added to lend a little sweetness. Since it has okra and filé powder, I could also have called it Gumbolaya. But that’s another dish †.

• 14 oz okra, sliced into ½” pieces
• 1 cup tomatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup carrot, diced
• 10 oz sweet potato, diced
• 1 cup cooked chicken, diced
• 1 (8-oz) can tuna, flaked
• 1 (10-oz) can baby chopped clams
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups clam juice
• 1 tsp <salt>
• ¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground cayenne chile
• ½ tsp dried leaf thyme
• 1/3 cup long grain white rice
• ½ tsp gumbo filé powder

Lightly coat the bottom of a 2 quart sauce pan with cooking oil (e.g., spray) and cook the onion and garlic until golden. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the rice and filé powder, bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes, add the rice, and simmer another 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Add the filé powder and wait about a minute for the stew to slightly thicken. Serve in bowls with French rolls.

Makes 4 servings.