Storing fresh herbs is a battle against the inevitable, but here are a few tips for keeping them alive in time for you to eat them up:
1 Set a bushy herb like parsley, cilantro, chervil, or mint in a shallow glass of water and keep it on the counter or in the refrigerator for several days, just like a bouquet.
2 Or, rinse it, wrap it loosely in a paper or dish towel while still damp, and place it (with or without a plastic bag covering) in the crisper or at the bottom of the fridge.
3 Sturdy herbs such as rosemary or thyme can be stored in paper or loose plastic (either keep it loose or puncture some air holes to let out moisture). Or you can simply hang them upside down in the kitchen, where they will dry slowly.
4 Do not manhandle delicate herbs like chives, tarragon or basil. Rinse lightly, wrap loosely in paper and place in a plastic bag in the crisper.
5 Fresh herbs should last about a week if stored properly. If you're at the end of your garden's season and you have a tons of herbs left unused, you can most herbs to have later in the year. Kalyn's Kitchen breaks down the best way to freeze basil, rosemary and thyme.
Reference: Marjoram vs. oregano (Cookthink)
Reference: How to make pesto (Cookthink)
So-called Italian sausage is a style of plump, uncured pork sausage that comes in hot and sweet varieties -- essentially, with or without hot red peppers.
Sold in links and flavor-enhanced with garlic and fennel and/or anise seeds, it can be cooked like any old sausage and is especially popular in sausage-based pasta sauces or eaten in a sandwich with fried onions and bell peppers.
Go to Italy and ask for "Italian sausage," and you will receive either a blank stare or a multitude of options; what we think of as Italian sausage is a generic label specific to the U.S.
Recipe: Pappardelle With Sausage And Yellow Squash (Cookthink)
Recipe: White Bean Soup With Spicy Sausage (Cook & Eat)
Reference: What is chorizo? (Cookthink)
what you should know
The general makeup of any fresh sausage is ground meat and fat plus seasonings ("not too much of this and just enough of that," as the Joy of Cooking prescribes.)
The basic formula for what we Americans call "Italian sausage" is ground pork + salt/pepper + fennel or anise seed.
hot or sweet From there, Italian sausage diverges into two camps -- hot and sweet. The sweet isn't really (though some do add sugar to the mix), but the hot can be plenty hot depending on how many red pepper flakes you use.
comi ti chiami? Asking for "Italian sausage" in Italy will no doubt solicit this response: "Which one?"
take 2 anise & call me in the AM The Romans used anise as a medicinal herb for digestion -- important if you're eating more than a couple sausages.
play it loose The casing is an integral part of sausage. But you can also make or buy the mixture loose if you're cooking a casserole or sauce for which you have to break up the meat anyway.
my hero Italian sausage is the foundation for many sandwiches, such as this Pittsburgh classic. (Go Steelers!)
what you need
Move beyond just Italian sausage with Home Sausage Making: How-To Techniques for Making and Enjoying 100 Sausages at Home.
For home sausage making, pull out your stand mixer and the meat grinder and sausage stuffer attachments.
While the weather's still cooperating, take your sausages on a picnic and fire them up on a portable grill.
what you do
For a classic sausage sandwich, top the meat with peppers onions, and a dollop of mustard dressing.
Rich and hearty, this sausage, spinach and cheese lasagna is great for potlucks.
Packing for a picnic? You can make a batch of sausage, portobello, and barley pilaf the night before.
For a quick weeknight dinner, try whole wheat penne with Italian sausage, cauliflower and rosemary.
A crispy pita pizza is strong enough to hold up to hefty toppings like sausage, peppers, and carrots.
As the evenings start to cool off, dig in to a white bean soup with sausage and escarole.
This week's Root Source Challenge featured recipe is a Soprano's-inspired dish of Roasted Sausages, Peppers, Potatoes and Onions. Congratulations to Nikki of Nik Snacks!
You may have a Dutch oven and not even know it.
A Dutch oven is a large pot with an arched lid that offers extra room for cooking something like a pot roast or whole chicken.
Dutch ovens are available in a variety of shapes and materials. We like our enamel-coated cast iron Dutch oven from Le Creuset that is dishwasher-safe and can withstand 800F heat (if only our oven went so high). The heavy cast iron allows for browning a roast on the stove top and popping it in the oven for several hours, all the while evenly distributing the heat and allowing room for braising liquid.
Do you have to have a Dutch oven? No. A 6-quart tight-lidded pot will do. A good-quality Dutch oven is a luxury to use in the kitchen, though, so you might want to put one on your wish list.
Marjoram is oregano's calmer, sweeter fraternal twin. Oregano = zesty + peppery + lemony. Marjoram = delicate + floral + round. The two are often used interchangeably but if you get up in their mix you'll see some big differences.
Want to test the difference? Get a fresh sprig of marjoram and a fresh sprig of oregano. Tear an oregano leaf in half. Hold it up to your nose. Smell that piney resin? That jolt? It's sharp, isn't it? Almost one note.
Okay, wait a few minutes, then do the same thing with the marjoram. Smell the complexity? The spice is still there but it's perfumed, heady. Almost soapy. (If you use too much of it, that soapiness can take over a soup or sauce.)
So, can you use one in place of the other? Sure. If you use oregano when a recipe calls for marjoram (or vice versa), the flavors of the dish won't be wildly different. Still, we like to honor and explore the subtle character differences between the two.
Try some of our marjoram recipes or oregano recipes on Cookthink.
Chopping is probably the most common way to prep an onion. Chopped onions show up in anything that needs the basic, earthy pungent flavor that onions give. Chop them larger for longer-cooking dishes like stews and rustic soups, and smaller (call it a dice if you like) for anything from salsas to sauces to ragouts.
To start, cut the onion in half through the root. The root itself will help keep the onion together for chopping
Rotate the onion 90 degrees and cut off the papery end (not the root end). This will make the skin easy to peel away and discard.
Peel back the onion's papery skin. It's often easiest to peel away the first layer of the onion along with the skin.
Make a series of diagonal cuts (roughly 45 degrees) into the side of the onion. Keep more space between the slices for a large chop. Make the cuts closer together for a small chop or a dice.
Now make a series of horizontal cuts to finish shaping the chop or dice.
Finally, rotate the onion again and slice crosswise against the checkerboard pattern you made in the onion. The chopped pieces will fall away from the onion.
To wash or not to wash? Though the conventional wisdom says not to wash mushrooms, we side with Jacques Pepin, Harold McGee and Alton Brown, all of whom say that washing leads to neither mushy mushrooms nor lost flavor. Most of the time though, you'll be okay just brushing over dark spots with a damp paper towel. However you decide to clean your mushrooms, wait and clean them just before you need them.
