Andouille, S’il Vous Plait

I have been waiting to use this spicy andouille sausage from my Applegate Farms package because I LOVE spicy flavors! Love, love, love.  The spicier, the  better.  The usually have to tone down my chili and salsa because The Roommate and The Boyfriend are sissies more moderate in their spicy tastes. I like to burn the roof off my mouth.  Which is why I had already planned on pairing the spicy andouille with crushed red pepper flakes.

I started dinner after a frustrating trip to the supermarket where I was positively forced to spent $4 on an entire bag of lemons because the individual lemons looked like they had been grown in a basement. What do you do when life hands you (a lot of) lemons? You use them all up, otherwise you’ve wasted your money, honey! Anybody have any lemon-heavy recipes they’d like to share?

After I’d stopped my hissy fit over $4 worth of lemons, I got down to business. I made andouille with roasted Brussels Sprouts and a lemon/butter/garlic sauce over vegetable bow tie pasta.

To make roasted Brussels sprouts:

• 1 lb. Brussels sprouts, washed and with the stems cut off (*When buying Brussels sprouts, remember smaller is better!)
• 3 T olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Toss the sprouts in a bowl with the oil, salt and pepper and transfer to a baking sheet.  Roast for 20 minutes, stir them around a little, and roast for another 15-20 minutes (you want them roasted but not too brown).

While the sprouts are roasting, put a big pot of water on to boil.  With about ten minutes left on the sprouts, toss 1 lb. of pasta into the water.  I used vegetable bow ties I buy in bulk from our local co-op. Try new pasta with this dish — it’s hearty and needs something besides flimsy white pasta.  Vegetable pasta tastes no different, but it is bright and colorful.  Whole wheat pasta would work well, too.

While the pasta boils, heat 1 T olive oil in a pan and 4 links Applegate Farms spicy andouille (sliced down the middle so you have 8 strips) and 2 minced gloves of garlic.  Cook the andouille until the skin is slightly browned.

In the same pan as the andouille, melt 6 T butter (don’t be shy now!) and add the juice from 2 lemons.

Heat on medium low, stirring frequently, until the sauce begins to thicken.

Once the sauce is done, put the pasta in a serving dish and add the sausage and Brussels sprouts.  Pour the sauce over the pasta and shake a little crushed red pepper.  Enjoy, as I did, around a warm table with friends and loved ones.

I lied.  Truth time: I was in a terrible mood while making this and was therefore enjoying nothing but alone time in the kitchen.  I was tired and HUNGRY because I hadn’t gotten to start dinner until 9:07. I was missing the Office AND 30 Rock, my two favorite shows.  We were supposed to go out for The Roommate’s Boyfriend’s birthday, but I had no money and I had to get up early for work on Friday, which was making it difficult to feel festive.  And I just had so many damn lemons leering up at me from the fruit bowl.

Therefore, had you, like the poor Boyfriend, made the error of walking into the kitchen around this time, you would have found me muttering under my breath as I combined the sprouts, sausage, pasta, and sauce in serving dish.  I scooped some grumpy spoonfuls into bowls for us, grabbed a fork, shoved a bite in my mouth, and…. my frown melted away.  Seriously.  Ask The Boyfriend.  This dish is just THAT GOOD. It will improve your mood in an instant.  It’s just so dynamic: packed with flavor (red pepper! lemon! garlic!), is kind of healthy (veggies!), and definitely hearty (sausage! pasta! butter!).  I took a silent moment and enjoyed my bowl.  It was respite I needed from my day.

Make this yourself, or at least some version of it.  Treat yourself to something nice.  We all need something to make us stop and take a few deep breaths.  Perhaps a good meal can be that something.