Pasta night

According to the Weather Channel, it was -5 degrees F. (-20 degrees C.) when I woke up Wednesday morning! We are supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow today with a high of 11 degrees F. (or -11 degrees C.) Ah, winter in Michigan...

I went home at lunch through that same, insidious light small snow. This time, the car tires were packing it down and turning it into ice. I did see salt trucks here and there, but it's too cold for the salt to work properly.

I stopped at Westborn to pick up some herbs, mushrooms and to see if they carried cavatelli pasta (they didn't) Next, I stopped at Home Depot and bought the casing to go around the shower opening. I couldn't find any that matched the inside door casing, but luckily, one of the store assistants showed me a "contractor's bundle" that not only had enough for both doors but was much cheaper in price than buying the three pieces I needed for just the shower opening. Thanks, store guy!

The trip back home after work was just as slippery! I did take the expressway, in spite of checking the traffic reports online and finding a recent accident at my exit and Jake telling me that Carla called and said there were numerous spinouts (one right in front of her) on I-275. I never got over 50 mph, but I did make it to my exit and home safely.

Once inside, I treated the cats, turned on the Classic Rock station, changed clothes, fixed myself a drink, started the Wednesday night laundry and washed up the few dishes from lunch. I took out some sweet Italian sausage to thaw for dinner.

So, dinner. I have seen various recipes for this basic dish: Broccoli and Sausage Cavatelli. Now, cavatelli usually refers to small pasta shells that resemble tiny hot dog buns and are often served with thick, chunky sauces or in pasta salads. I will post a picture so you understand what I mean. I also know you can make them at home, but I am not that ambitious tonight.

So, I used substitute pasta that is also made to take on a thick sauce. In this case it was rotelle (Substitutes include orecchiette or gnocchetti or rotini or malloreddus). Rotelle is just like rotini, only about twice as long).

Now, I must admit, I have changed the original recipe a tad. It called for spicy (hot) Italian sausage. But I went with sweet Italian sausage, because (one) that's what I had and (two), spicy or hot Italian sausage is a bit too spicy for me! And, this one did not, but some of the recipes for this classic included mushrooms. And, you know me and mushrooms! So, they're in there

Sidebar: (6:30 pm). The classic rock station I was listening to just gave a traffic report (and I quote) "The roads are slicker than snot on a door knob".

Damn, now there's a mental picture, eh?

So, after the sweet Italian sausage thawed, here's what I did. I put it in a skillet on medium high with olive oil. I cooked it until it was no longer pink and then reserved it (with a slotted spoon) and drained the grease off. I saut�ed four cloves of minced garlic and eight ounces of sliced Cremini mushrooms in some olive oil in the same pan.

Meanwhile, I cooked the Rotelle pasta in some salted water. Three minutes before it would be cooked al dente, I added 16 ounces of frozen broccoli. When the timer went off, I drained the pasta and broccoli.

I combined the pasta, broccoli, sausage mushrooms, garlic and olive oil in a big bowl and added in 1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese. I seasoned it with some red pepper flakes. It was very, very good, BTW.

I watched TV until it got boring and then read a magazine that came yesterday. When I started nodding, I turned off the light and went to sleep.