EASY Summer Suppers

Right now, for myself and I suspect all of us, easy prep suppers are what I am in the mood for. And if I can use fresh ingredients especially from the CSA even better. The first is an orchiette pasta with spinach, garlic and Niman Ranch sweet italian sausage (Mama V got me obsessed with the NR sausages.) I try to keep the ingredients for this meal handy so that all I need to do is pick up spinach if I do not have it and I am ready to go. Boil water for the pasta, then heat sausage cut in to slices in a saute pan with garlic and a bit of olive oil. When pasta is al dente save some water in case you need it to use later. Drain the pasta. Place washed spinach in the saute pan with the garlic and sausage, turn over a few times and add the pasta. Add parmesan cheese and a little pasta water if needed.
Place in bowls and top with more parm. Done. Love. Hope you do too.

The other dish is my Manly Salad. This is the only salad I can pass off as enough food for my Mister. I love it in the summer because you can use fresh lettuce (red or green leaf or romaine), corn, tomatoes, blue cheese, red onion if you please and here is the key Bacon! But not just any bacon. It must be a thick cut. What makes this the easiest is that we buy 3 pieces from Wolfgangs Steak House down the street. I know some of you live near a steak house (Mark Josephs in the seaport) so you can do it too. The Misters love it.

So for you veggies just omit the sausage and the bacon and there you go. Niman Ranch also makes a chicken/turkey italian sausage for the no red meat mamas.