Yet another pasta sauce

[walton_eats]

I was busy while making dinner, so no photos. But I have to write down what I did to make the sauce. It was freakin' delicious. So, here, let me share it with you, too!

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
A lot of Thai basil (3 tbsp, chopped. About?)
A lot of oregano (3 tbsp, chopped. About?)
3 bay leaves
A pinch or two (I used two) of fennel pollen
1 1-lb chub chicken Italian sausage
3-4 tbsp tomato paste
1 large can Hunt's tomato sauce
3-4 lbs ripe heirloom tomatoes, seeded and grated (see the video here for easy instructions on how to do this - http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/peeling-seeding-and-grating-tomatoes/)
1 lb button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup dry sherry
2-3 tbsp table sugar
salt to taste
pepper

In my 5-quart heavy duty pot, I sweated the onions and garlic with a bit of salt in the olive oil, then added all the herbs and let them open up for a couple of minutes. Then in went the sausage, broken up and stirring until cooked. Added the tomato paste and let that caramelize a bit. Then deglazed the whole mess with the sherry, letting it cook down until there was hardly any liquid left. Added the mushrooms and let them start to cook a bit, then in went the tomato sauce and the grated tomatoes. I let the sauce simmer for a couple of hours, partially covered, until it was reduced to about half its original volume, then seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit of sugar, to taste. Served it over fresh fettuccine.

The Thai basil gave the sauce a bit of a spicy kick, and the fennel pollen highlighted the fennel-y flavor of the sausage. Next time I will probably go with all of this and add some reconstituted Porcini and the liquid to give it just another layer of subtle, meaty flavor.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I've never even heard of using fennel pollen. Where do you get it? Is it something that you gathered in the garden?

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I bought it. It's pricy. On the other hand, the tin I have has lasted almost five years, and it's not lost much in the way of flavor. Like saffron, it takes very little to give something a lot of flavor. I especially love to use it on pork tenderloin.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. I've been thinking about getting some saffron crocus to grow my own. Might have to grow some fennel, too.

[mopalia.livejournal.com]

I planted saffron crocus for a few years and they never did anything - until one year they popped up and I had a tiny crop - takes a lot of space for one saffron chicken dish!
Be careful of the fennel - it can be persistent and come back year after year, but it can also spread through self seeding - it's a common weed in California, does well almost anywhere - and is almost everywhere. You won't get bulbs without very rich soil, but you'll get plenty of leaves, seeds and pollen no matter where you put it.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine grew saffron crocuses in Mountain View for ages--she let them naturalize, and got a pretty sizeable crop every year. But they are very labor intensive.

I'm not sure if crocus or fennel will grow where I am no (upstate South Carolina), but I figure it can't hurt to try.

[mopalia.livejournal.com]

I was in Seattle - (now just a skip from Mountain View in Sunnyvale). Really, I can't imagine any place fennel won't grow.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Sounds yummy! Never heard of using fennel pollen as an ingredient.