We’re eating baked rigatoni in a turkey bolognese covered with melted Havarti and mozzarella then garnished with fresh basil.

I realize it’s the middle of summer and most people aren’t in the mood to turn their ovens on to 450 degrees, but what can I say! I wanted some oozing cheesy baked pasta mixed with loads of hearty bolognese, zucchini, creminis and fresh basil! Give a girl a break. Sometimes you have to sweat for what you want…In my case that appears to be Italian food!

I really can’t say enough about the difference that using good canned tomatoes vs. cheap acidy canned tomatoes makes in pretty much any dish. If you can find them, spend the extra dollar and get the San Marzanos. Also, as another side note, heavily salting your pasta water truly makes the difference between bland and flavorful pasta. Aim for nearly sea water levels and you’ll have delicious pasta every time.

Recipes in this post:

• Baked Rigatoni with Turkey Bolognese

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1. Turkey Cooking Basics
2. Chipotle Brined Grilled Butterflied Turkey
3. Knorr Homestyle Stock Bad Boy Macaroni and Cheese

Let the sausage making begin! Using our newly acquired meat grinder we’ve made our first sausage – and used it to top a pizza. Our pizza consisted of a thin crispy crust layered with homemade basil pesto, caramelized onions, sauteed portobello mushrooms, browned and crumbled homemade sausage, buffalo mozzarella, and a light sprinkling of of tomato basil feta. After baking we garnished the pizza with torn leaves of basil to add a level of freshness.

T: it’s so exciting that you’re making sausage these days! Can’t wait till the next batch.
A: hmm… well it’s definitely exciting that i made sausage! but i’ve only done it once now. i’m really looking forward to the next batch. just think of all the spice combinations i can try! ooo wee!
T: you know what would be really good? Italian sausage. What’d you think of that?
A: i think you’re right on. i totally dig some italian sausage. did you think this particular batch of sausage reminded you at all of italian sausage?
T: no not particularly. Was it supposed to?
A: not really, although it had the fennel kicking like italian sausage does. that’s pretty much the main similarity.

T: Ok, so we’ve talked about the sausage, but the pizza as a whole really stole the show. That pizza was goood. Mmmm. I love pesto. I give the pizza a 4.7/5. If I still had the stomach of a 25 year old I would have eaten every piece of it.
A: hehehe wow. your stomach must have really deteriorated in the past year!… you are only 26 you know!?!
T: yeah, sadly, my stomach has indeed gone downhill since my younger days. Damn coffee. It’s some harsh stuff, yet oh so necessary.
A: true dat. i could have really used some of that this afternoon! but i think i could use a slice of this pizza even more… i am sooo hungry. i give the pizza as a whole a 4.68/5. it was freaking good. the crust came out nice and thin and crispy. the buffalo mozzarella added a nice flavor. frankly, it was all good. i could seriously go for a couple of slices! why god?!? why can’t i just have pizza magically appear at my command?!?
T: it’s going to take at least half an hour to have pizza magically appear. And it’s going to suck compared to this pizza. I would suggest fantasizing about something else, such as winning american idol or something.
A: or making more and different sausages!
T: yes. much better idea. forget what I said.

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1. Baked Rigatoni with Turkey Bolognese
2. Nothin’ Beats Manda’s Meats
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For dinner we’re eating a creamy, savory baked polenta. The polenta was slowly simmered in whole milk and water then poured into a baking dish and topped first with a tomato, crimini mushroom, and vidalia onion sauce, then with jalapeno jack and havarti cheeses, and finally with seasoned asparagus. The whole dish was baked until golden and bubbly then finished with a sprinkling of diced sun-dried tomatoes.

A: oh my. this was one rich, yet deeelicious meal!
T: it was delish. Some of the best damn grits I’ve ever had.
A: sshhhhh! don’t call them grits! we’re trying to sound more sheshe! call it “baked polenta”.
T: but of course, darling… of course. How could I be so crude? We have long since left the South. We’re proper folks, now.
A: ha! proper my ass! does sheshe have to be proper?
T: If you have to ask… you’ll never know, darling.
A: until you threw in “darling” i thought you were starting to sing an old red hot chili peppers song.
T: Hmmph! Perhaps if it were 1991 and I were speaking aloud rather than typing. Then you would have been on to something. Ok, moving on. The grits- er polenta. It was quite tasty. The texture of the polenta was smooth, moist, and yet firm. I actually thought you had put some cheese in the grits…
A: but alas, you thought wrong! and really there was hardly any butter in the grits either. only a tablespoon or two for the whole dish! but i always make my polenta/grits with whole milk and water so it gives them a creaminess you don’t always acheive with water alone. this was certainly not a… ah… healthy meal… but my god it was tasty. it had everything… bacon, cheese, whole milk, butter… and some veggies and a pseudo-ish grain. mmm.
T: Yeah, it was rich. Although it wasn’t too filling, so I was able to put down quite a bit
A: i’ll admit this: when i pulled it out of the oven and saw some grease pooling on top i took immediate action and soaked it all up with a handy dandy paper towel. hopefully that helped some!
T: Well I certainly had no complaints about this one. I give it a 4.6/5. Flavor-wise, it was superb. I guess it could have scored higher if it had been a touch healthier, but… eh. I don’t care too much about that. It tasted good, I liked it mucho, and I will happily gobble it up if you ever make it again.
A: now you know i rarely… if ever… make the exact same thing twice. but, i do think we’ll be seeing this dish in some form in the future. i really dug it too. i am actually giving it the exact same score as you! 4.6/5. and pretty much for the same reasons… if the meal had been a touch healthier as well as that tasty it could have rated higher, but hey! we’re young! it’ll be decades before we need open heart surgery.
T: yeah and by then there will be little robots that come through the air and fix it for us anyway, so who gives a damn about heart health? Word to the wise (from the really wise): eat beef now.

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2. Baked Rigatoni with Turkey Bolognese
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For a quick and easy dinner we turned our leftover roasted tomato soup into a pasta sauce. We’re eating fresh spinach fettucini tossed with a sauce made of reduced leftover tomato soup, sauteed onions, crimini mushrooms, smoked sausage, and ribbons of basil. The whole dish was topped with fresh basil pesto and truffle oil, just for kicks.

A: this was totally one of those meals where I was “cleaning out the fridge” and only wanting to make something quick and easy. fortunately it turned out to be tasty too!
T: it was quite tasty. That tomato soup made a great sauce for the pasta. The sausage was pretty good too.
A: heheh the california “louisiana smoked sausage”? yeah. i thought it was pretty good too… except it tasted nothing like louisiana sausage. good, but nothing like louisiana smoked sausage!
T: very true. I always think of louisiana sausage as being more coarsely ground than this was. Every now and then you need a little bit of something hard and strange to let you know you’re eating an actual animal. That’s what louisiana sausage is all about. This sausage tasted like any other pork sausage that you would buy shrinkwrapped from the grocery store… with a touch of pepper added. That’s it.
A: hmm i’m pretty sure it was shrink wrapped and hanging in a mega-mart before it got to us! it was gifted to us on monday from your lovely mom and her mega generous roommate… who also gave us a really exciting whole de-boned stuffed chicken straight from cajun country! WOOO HOOO!
T: While it was generous of them to give us the meat, we should mention that the fake lousiana sausage was being given away to make room in the freezer for a massive quantity of actual louisiana sausage.
A: which we will get to consume! WOOO HOOOOOOO. man, i’m just worked up over all this glorious meat
T: calm yourself down, miss Amanda. I don’t want you to have a stroke now. Fan yourself off… you’re pink in the cheeks.
A: silly, i’m always pink in the cheeks! i’m rosey by nature but really, we should focus back on the pasta.
T: focus!
A: yessir! okay… i really dug the pesto and truffle oil mixed with the reduced tomato soup sauce and sauteed goodness. I think the splash of pesto really brightened the whole thing up.
T: yeah, the pesto was the real kicker. That and the sausage. You know, I think pesto is way under-utilized in the world considering how tasty it is. Whatcha think?
A: well it certainly is tasty! i dunno how much it’s utilized around the world… all i know is the here and now, my brother. the here and now.
T: well, I’m frequently a little confused about the here and now, but from my experience going to restaurants in various parts of this hemisphere, pesto has not been used all that frequently. Now, mayonaise, for example, is used all the time… and it sucks. But why ain’t pesto gettin no love?
A: well you see sweet cheeks, mayonaise just takes oil and eggs! no need for keeping it uber fresh and having to have herbs around! and btw: mayonaise doesn’t really suck. jarred mayo sucks and is filled with god knows what kind of preservatives.
T: ok. Mayo sucks. But that’s not the point. And what restaurants don’t have some damn herbs laying around? And, ummm… I’m really not too keen on “not so fresh” mayo, BTW. woman.
A: well hello mr. fiesty pants! who knew you were so impassioned about mayo!
T: everybody knows that mayo sucks.
A: woah dog! i think a huge number of people are gonna disagree with you on that!
T: and I care because… help me out here. Wait, I don’t. And they’re wrong. Moving on. I give this meal a 4.1/5. It was tasty, and although I liked the sausage (I like all sausage pretty much), it left something to be desired. The tomato sauce was still just as tasty as it was when it was a tomato soup a few days ago. I don’t know, it was good, but nothing extraordinary. What did you think?
A: I pretty much agree with you. I didn’t think it was extraordinary or anything, but i did think it was good all around. especially for the little effort and time that i had to put into it. I give it a 4.25/5. while i think pepperoni would have been a better sausage for the sauce, i didn’t think the smoked sausage left me really wanting. I was perfectly content to make it through the entire plate of pasta without much trouble!
T: yeah, it was certainly enjoyable the whole way through. Like a big vat of mayo, eh?
A: Ha. Freaking. Ha.

Recipes in this post:

• Smoked Sausage Tomato Sauce

Related posts:

1. Baked Rigatoni with Turkey Bolognese