Sunday, January 3rd 2010

First Sunday of 2010! After much deliberation on menu choices and thinking about people's possible new years resolutions, I decided what the staff needed today was a healthy hearty winter soup! Scott wanted Italian wedding soup, but after looking at many, many recipes I knew I wasn't in the mood to make enough "hamburger" meatballs for 40 people! Plus they just sounded bland. Sweet Italian sausage was the ingredient I had in mind to work with. I started on a quest to find the sausage soup of my dreams, that was both healthy (moderately) with a rich flavor.....I came up with nothing. The recipes I found didn't seem to have enough flavor profiles. So for the first time since catering the Sunday meals, I officially created my own recipe! I'm not even sure what to call it! I think I will just call it Sweet Italian Sausage Soup with Fresh Basil & Great Northern Beans! I also made garlic & rosemary dinner rolls and my favorite chocolate chip cookies.



Sweet Italian Sausage Soup with Fresh Basil & Great Northern Beans

1 lb Sweet Italian Sausage
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 (32 oz) boxes chicken broth
2 (14.5 oz) cans italian stewed tomatoes, crushed
1 (14.5 oz) can great northern white beans
1 bunch fresh basil
5 oz. fresh spinach
2 small zucchinis, quartered
Any Italian spices you would like to add oregano, basil, parsley, garlic, kosher salt, pepper etc. Do it up, just don't over do it!
Your favorite white cheese!

Brown sausage in large dutch oven, adding garlic half way through. Strain sausage lightly....you don't want to loose your garlic, and you want to keep some of the juices to give the broth extra flavor! To be honest, I just threw the rest of the ingredients (not the cheese) into the pot and simmered until everything was tender! If you are a more advanced chef than I am you may know at what point it is best to add the spinach etc.....but it turned out wonderful! At church, we added shredded mozzarella to the soup....this tasted great, but mostly it was cost effective! If I were you, and I was making this soup again, I would try some pecorino romano sprinkled on each bowl! Yum. Enjoy!



I can't believe I am doing this. I have made these rolls so many times over the years, for weddings, dinner parties and many holiday meals. They are by far the easiest thing I have up my sleeve. I love, love, love to bake bread, but as you may know it takes forever! So when I want to serve an amazing yeast roll, but don't have the time to make it....I go buy a bag or Rhode's Rolls from the freezer section. I get out my 9 x 13 baking dish and set it aside. I melt a stick of butter in a bowl and add fresh minced garlic, a ton of rosemary, a good amount of oregano and basil. I take each frozen roll, drench it in the melted butter (make sure it has a lot of garlic and herbs on it when you pull it out) place it in the pan, next to all its friends....then let them rise! When they are covered in a shell of butter,like they will be, they do take a bit longer than the package says....I would give them 6-7 hours just to be safe! Bake at 400 for 15 minutes and vuala!!