Grilled Italian Sausage with Potatoes

Recipes you can't refuse!

My mother had her own way about her, the way she made you accountable that is. That accountability included us kids for sure but even her customers at the restaurant couldn't escape her primitive way of branding her restaurant and making them feel a part of her community. The way it was done before social media.

Actually anybody who didn't want to be left out of the special things my mother cooked understood the program. As the spirit would move her she would make the dishes my grandmother taught her. They were the dishes with their roots firmly embedded in the peasant culture of Naples Italy during the early 1900's. They were for the most part one pot dishes, incredible pastry and fresh pasta.

Growing up Italian, eating was akin to breathing. It took center stage over just about everything in our lives. Of course there happened to be a restaurant in our living room. What? You didn't have one of those? Most likely not, especially in the 1950's.

My mother didn't believe in advertizing and she enlisted her own brand of intimidation to brand and market the restaurant. She had a iron clad memory and she knew everybody's name and what their weakness was for the  special things she would make. Whenever she would make those one pot meals, traditional dishes considered the food of the peasants she would call the relatives...her brother Vic, DR Edward Bove, Joe Bove and so on.

However when she made the dishes more consistent with the restaurant menu, braciole, homemade pastas of all sorts and canoli just as an example things that we wouldn't have all the time. She would call her favorite customers who she knew were addicted to her food... if they didn't show up as she expected them to , they didn't get called the next time. That's how she kept them in line.

There was a favorite story of mine. One of our good customers was a Vt State Trooper, a red headed Italian. My mother would call the state police barracks and leave a message with dispatch that she was trying to reach officer Freeze. Soon after his cruiser would be in our driveway. He knew the call meant she had one of her homemade canoli's for him.

I know it's not in vogue to eat much sausage any more but a great sausage w/ roasted baby new potatoes and broccoli rabe is a great way to bring in the summer grilling season. Limit yourself to two sausages if that concerns you! Those of you who may be reading this in our hometown of Rutland Vt you were spoiled. We had fabulous bakeries with great bread and Mrs Bellomo's homemade sausage. There was a large Italian population mostly because of the Marble Business. There were builders, stone masons, doctors, great cooks, pharmacies, beer distributors, grocery store owners, scholars and our Aunt Teresa the countess of Grove street, well you get the point. Oh by the way all of those people were just in our family.

Eat well and live long. Mrs. Tom

Serves four

Grilled sweet or hot Italian sausage

w/ roasted baby new potatoes, fennel, radishes, sweet onions
and a sauté of broccoli rabe

 

8 sausages...maybe a couple extra just in case one of the neighbors drops by

12 medium baby new potatoes, marks removed and washed with the skin on

2 medium to large sweet onions/ quartered

2 stalks fennel/ trimmed and the bulbs cut into similar sizes with the onion and potato

12 large fresh radishes, trimmed and washed

3 bunches broccoli rabe/ blanched in boiling water

1/2 cup olive oil

7 large clove of fresh garlic chopped

3 sprigs of rosemary chopped fine

2 medium shallots/ chopped

2 qts of boiling water

pinch crushed red pepper optional

S&P

This is a new combination that I came up with this winter. Roasting the root vegetables available year round. In a large bowl place all the cut vegetables ( not the broccoli rabe) coat w/ just enough of the olive oil and add a little more than half the garlic, all the shallots, rosemary and S&P to taste. Toss the ingredients in the bowl until they are well coated and seasoned with all the herbs and spices place them in  roasting pan or I like to use my iron skillet. Into the oven at 325 for about 45 minutes shake them a few times so they roll around and both sides are seared by the bottom of the pan and roasted on the top. You can check the potatoes, when they are done your ready.

Get the grill ready! heat your grill to high and close the lid. When the clear liquid begins to surface on the sausage they are done.

While the sausages are cooking and the pan of root vegetables is about 10-15 minutes from done in a sauté pan use the remainder of the olive oil, add the garlic and brown it...then add the broccoli rabe, S&P to taste and the pinch of red pepper if you like.

Mrs. Tom Secret

Par boil the sausage in the boiling water for about 7-8 minutes this keeps them moist inside. Then char them up on the hot part of your grill. Accent them with your favorite spicy mustard!

Crisp Salmon with New Potato Crab Hash

Oh Yah We Were Italian

First of all we lived in close proximity to about 250 Cousins, Uncles and Aunts. In our family three brothers had married three sisters in Naples Italy. They had 18 children, my mother the youngest of them. Close proximity means very close, like in the same house. Here you found my grandparents when they were still alive, my Uncle Gigi and Aunt Esther, Aunt Teresa mom's sister, her brother Uncle Peter, Mama Lee, my brother and I and of course a restaurant that sat another 50 guests nightly.

It was a 19 room house with 11 bedrooms on the top two floors. Two of the bedrooms were in the attic. Now they were finished nicely wallpaper and all. There were Italians living in the two houses next to us, the Valente's, they had two houses the size of ours side by side that housed four or five factions of their family including the grandparents, all the girl children and their husbands and children. My Uncle, Dr. Bove lived across the street with my five cousins. He was really a first cousin of my mother but we never bothered with that distinction, he was Uncle Eddie aka "the doc". His was a huge house that at one time contained his office where he saw patients. Then he opened a new office, you guessed it, across the street and above his office just so we didn't waste a inch of space lived Aunt Dot and Uncle John his brother and my cousin Paul.

 

How close was the new office you ask? Well when my brother would come home late and mom would ask him in the morning "what time did you get in" he would answer 1pm or so trying to be vague as possible and Aunt Dot sitting with her coffee and donut would chirp in "it was 2:15, she never slept! Right on the same block and around the corner was my Uncle Vic, mom's other brother who had taken over my grandfather's grocery store and he lived above the store with my cousins Barry, Vic Jr. and his wife Aunt Gina. When my brother moved back to Rutland after college and bought his first home, yup right there on the other side of the Valentes just 4 doors down from where he grew up and directly across from Uncle Eddie, Aunt Chris and the 5 cousins.

There was family everywhere and we were an Italian neighborhood. As part of that dynamic it seemed important that we all had a grape vine, ours was the biggest and covered a beautiful slate patio out back. How I remember picking and eating those concord grapes off the vine during football season. The old wine presses were in still in our cellar along with a dirt wine room but with the passing of my grandfather went that technology and passion. Our vine was identical to old Mr. Valente's, not 50 yards away however for some reason when he wasn't looking his grapes tasted a bit better.

I don't believe we ever went to a grocery store, everything was delivered to our house from the Italian bakery, or the food purveyors. We never ate a loaf of white bread or a can of anything! If we went to a grocery it was Uncle Vic's or the Salarni Brothers who were the only ones that could cut the braciole the way my mother wanted it.

Every holiday brought with it "the gathering" especially Christmas where we would have 50 to 60 Aunts, Uncles and cousins for dinner at the restaurant. It was a closeness that was lost with the passing of my mother's generation. I miss it and am sorry that our children have missed out on it.

 

Mrs. Tom loves fish! Here is a new version for you.

 

Crisp Salmon with New Potato Crab Hash

Serves four

4 / 8 oz skin on salmon filets

20 small peeled and par-boiled new potatoes
1lb of lump crab
olive oil to sear the potatoes and fish
1bunch scallions/ chopped
mix together 4 tablespoons virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons water and three tablespoons lemon juice...whisk together
fresh dill/chop do not bruise
10 oven roasted roma tomatoes cut in half
Salt & Pepper

In a sauce pan pour the oil and heat. Place the potatoes in the oil and sear them mash the potatoes with a fork until they are rustic mashed fold in the crab add the scallions season with salt-pepper, fresh dill and then fold on the center of the plate.

For the salmon - A Mrs. Tom Secret:

Place the salmon on a cutting board skin side up squeeze the salmon from end to end so it humps in the middle and with a sharp knife score the skin with 6 cuts just through the skin and into the flesh. Place the salmon skin side down in a hot skillet or pan with oil and sear for about 4 minutes do not touch salmon until you turn it. It will keep the fish crispy and will hold its shape because of the scoring of the skin.

Place the fish on top of the hash drizzle with the oil, water, lemon mixture, place the tomatoes around the fish serve and enjoy.

NY Strips

Mr. Tom's favorite grill menu

I don't think there was a man alive who enjoyed a great steak like Mr. Tom. Around the propane gas industry both local and national he was legendary for his leadership when it came to choosing a great steak house. He was always anointed with this task on behalf of the group when they traveled to both regional and national shows. It was on one of these journeys that he would acquire a nick name that lasted him the rest of his days. T-bone!

As the story goes Mr. Tom made reservations at Bern's Steak House in Tampa Fla. ... Bern's is reputed to be one of the best steak houses in the world. The experience there is legendary this included a million bottle wine cellar that stretches two full blocks under the restaurant. The evening always includes tours of the kitchen and cellar given by the servers. In order to have dessert you make the reservation during dinner and you are reserved a seat on the second floor, you are escorted up in the elevator by your server, dessert is not served at the dinner table. Rolling carts of after dinner cordials are brought table side and the over sized desserts were just the way t-bone liked them, spectacular. It was not unusual for the dessert tabs to run fifty dollars and up, dinner, well forget about it!

The servers at Bern's make 70 to 80 thousand a year and as you might imagine, once in as a server you go nowhere else. Getting in is another story. Bern's has their own farm and raises their own produce, beef and has two 15 foot tall round fish tanks in the kitchen where the fish are still swimming until you order them. The tanks have glass walls so the guests are able to view the swimming fish. The whole experience is like Disney for foodies and especially for steak lovers. As a rite of passage the waiters are required to work on the farm for one year before the go on the floor at the restaurant. Their product knowledge is second to none in the industry.

Once you have been seated and have ordered your favorite libation the attentive staff is at your beckon call. This is generally when the kitchen tour takes place, the server will find your order hanging in the kitchen while you journey through and point to where the butcher is cutting your steak. They are not cut until your order arrives in the kitchen.

At Bern's Steak House you order your steak by the type of cut and whatever size you desire. There are minimums but no ceiling on how large, music to Mr. Tom's ears.. A typical order from Mr. Tom would sound something like this. "I'll have the king cut, just knock the horns off wipe its butt and put it on the plate". He liked it with the chill taken off! There were 8 propane gas men at the table and when the steaks arrived, the other 7 looked at Mr. Tom's Plate in amazement and asked the waiter "Lord how big is that steak". The waiter replied "that's not a steak that's a roast for a small family"! from that day forward he was T-bone.

Well the fourth of July is upon us, arguably one of the busiest grilling days of the year. Here is Mr. Toms favorite meal for the grill. Purchase a choice steak, a NY Strip would make Mr. Tom happy, 10 oz minimum, T-bone would say "14oz minimum". Mr. Tom loved a good dog with the same passion and if its dogs on the grill or a good kielbasa we suggest you stop by Big Lenny's Cart and purchase his savory relishes and mustard's to accompany your grilling. Oh and just to get into the spirit have a Big Lenny Treat while you're there. It's the thing I miss most about Rutland! Mr. Tom loved Lenny's kielbasa with the onion sauce and would always say" Lenny I'm not sure I liked that, better try another just to see".

Ingredients

4 12 oz NY Strips CAB or Choice

4 russet potatoes or good baking potato
1 bunch medium stock asparagus
2 large Vidalia onions if you can get them or white Spanish
1 stick unsalted butter/ room temp

Marinade

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
4 cloves chopped garlic
2 teaspoons course cracked pepper
salt to taste

Place the oil, rosemary, garlic and pepper together in a bowl and whisk. Place the steaks on a flat plate and brush on the mixture and let them sit for 30 minutes at room temperature. Do not salt until the steaks are on the grill or it draws the juices from the meat.

Cut the potatoes lengthwise and open up. With a sharp knife score the potatoes fairly deep in a crisscross pattern. Spread butter across and salt and pepper them, wrap them in foil.

Do the same with the onions. Make sure to peel the outside of the onion first.

Wash the asparagus and wrap them in foil with butter and S&P.

Heat the grill on high/ turn one side to medium heat

Place the potatoes cut side up on the grill so the butter will seep into the crevasses where the potato is scored. Leave them for about 15 minutes on the hot part of the grill, turn them over and move to the medium heat for another 20 minutes.

Place the onions on the grill in the same fashion they will take a little less time and come out with a wonderful caramelized texture.

Place the asparagus on last, turn it a few times and leave them on the medium heat for 10 minutes.

Remove the steaks from the plate and let the excess oil drain leaving as much of the herb mixture on the steak as possible. Place the steaks on the hot side of the grill. Depending on how hot your grill is about 7 minutes on each side for medium rare. The meat is expensive so to be sure I would always check with a meat thermometer. Brush the steaks with the remaining marinade as they cook. 120 TO 130 for medium rare.

Mrs. Toms Secret

Make sure to let your steaks rest for at least 10 minutes before you serve or cut them in order to let the juices recover and keep the meat nice and juicy. If you pay extra for Angus beef make sure it says CAB or Certified Angus Beef. Unless it does just purchase the choice cuts.

Grilled Italian Sausage with Roasted Potatoes

Recipes you can't refuse!

My mother had her own way about her, the way she made you accountable that is. That accountability included us kids for sure but even her customers at the restaurant couldn't escape her primitive way of branding her restaurant and making them feel a part of her community. The way it was done before social media.

Actually anybody who didn't want to be left out of the special things my mother cooked understood the program. As the spirit would move her she would make the dishes my grandmother taught her. They were the dishes with their roots firmly embedded in the peasant culture of Naples Italy during the early 1900's. They were for the most part one pot dishes, incredible pastry and fresh pasta.

Growing up Italian, eating was akin to breathing. It took center stage over just about everything in our lives. Of course there happened to be a restaurant in our living room. What? You didn't have one of those? Most likely not, especially in the 1950's.

My mother didn't believe in advertizing and she enlisted her own brand of intimidation to brand and market the restaurant. She had a iron clad memory and she knew everybody's name and what their weakness was for the  special things she would make. Whenever she would make those one pot meals, traditional dishes considered the food of the peasants she would call the relatives...her brother Vic, DR Edward Bove, Joe Bove and so on.

However when she made the dishes more consistent with the restaurant menu, braciole, homemade pastas of all sorts and canoli just as an example things that we wouldn't have all the time. She would call her favorite customers who she knew were addicted to her food... if they didn't show up as she expected them to , they didn't get called the next time. That's how she kept them in line.

There was a favorite story of mine. One of our good customers was a Vt State Trooper, a red headed Italian. My mother would call the state police barracks and leave a message with dispatch that she was trying to reach officer Freeze. Soon after his cruiser would be in our driveway. He knew the call meant she had one of her homemade canoli's for him.

I know it's not in vogue to eat much sausage any more but a great sausage w/ roasted baby new potatoes and broccoli rabe is a great way to bring in the summer grilling season. Limit yourself to two sausages if that concerns you! Those of you who may be reading this in our hometown of Rutland Vt you were spoiled. We had fabulous bakeries with great bread and Mrs Bellomo's homemade sausage. There was a large Italian population mostly because of the Marble Business. There were builders, stone masons, doctors, great cooks, pharmacies, beer distributors, grocery store owners, scholars and our Aunt Teresa the countess of Grove street, well you get the point. Oh by the way all of those people were just in our family.

Eat well and live long. Mrs. Tom
 

Serves four

Grilled sweet or hot Italian sausage w/roasted baby new potatoes, fennel, radishes, sweet onions

and a sauté of broccoli rabe

• 8 sausages...maybe a couple extra just in case one of the neighbors drops by

• 12 medium baby new potatoes, marks removed and washed with the skin on

• 2 medium to large sweet onions/ quartered

• 2 stalks fennel/ trimmed and the bulbs cut into similar sizes with the onion and potato

• 12 large fresh radishes, trimmed and washed

• 3 bunches broccoli rabe/ blanched in boiling water

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 7 large clove of fresh garlic chopped

• 3 sprigs of rosemary chopped fine

• 2 medium shallots/ chopped

• 2 qts of boiling water

• pinch crushed red pepper optional

• S&P

This is a new combination that I came up with this winter. Roasting the root vegetables available year round. In a large bowl place all the cut vegetables ( not the broccoli rabe) coat w/ just enough of the olive oil and add a little more than half the garlic, all the shallots, rosemary and S&P to taste. Toss the ingredients in the bowl until they are well coated and seasoned with all the herbs and spices place them in  roasting pan or I like to use my iron skillet. Into the oven at 325 for about 45 minutes shake them a few times so they roll around and both sides are seared by the bottom of the pan and roasted on the top. You can check the potatoes, when they are done your ready.

Get the grill ready! heat your grill to high and close the lid. When the clear liquid begins to surface on the sausage they are done.

While the sausages are cooking and the pan of root vegetables is about 10-15 minutes from done in a sauté pan use the remainder of the olive oil, add the garlic and brown it...then add the broccoli rabe, S&P to taste and the pinch of red pepper if you like.

 

Mrs. Tom Secret

Par boil the sausage in the boiling water for about 7-8 minutes this keeps them moist inside. Then char them up on the hot part of your grill. Accent them with your favorite spicy mustard!