Description
If you don’t already own one of these Le Creuset braisers, do yourself and your offspring a favour and put it on your Christmas list! It’s a lifetime investment and gets used almost daily in my kitchen. It’s the perfect size for this recipe. You can adapt this recipe to suit any flavour of Lepp’s fresh sausages. Love the Italian sausages? Omit the Mexican spice and replace it with your favourite Italian blend. Replace the black beans, corn and green chilis with a tin of cannellini beans or artichoke hearts.
Ingredients
4 Lepp’s fresh sausages, preferably Andouille, Chorizo, or fresh ground chorizo
Olive or avocado oil for sautéing
1 onion, diced
1 sweet red or orange pepper, diced
1 Tbsp. Triple Smoke Texx-Mexx spice blend (if you don’t have that in your cupboard, get one at the market! Or substitute a taco/Mexican seasoning of your choice)
1 tsp. cumin
¼ cup white wine, chicken stock, or water
1 398 ml. diced tomatoes, I love Italissima’s fire-roasted tomatoes
1 118 ml. diced green chilis
1 540 ml. black beans, drained and rinsed OR
2 cups corn kernels (you have Lepp’s corn in your freezer, right?)
OR a mix of both equaling about 2-3 cups
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature, cut into cubes
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
400 gm. dried pasta (Frustratingly, I realize a bag of pasta is usually 500 gms., but I just found that too much pasta for the sauce)
Optional toppings:
Grated Cheddar Cheese
Cilantro leaves
Diced Avocado
Sour Cream
Chopped Green Onion
Diced fresh or pickled jalapenos
Instructions
See note on how to poach fresh sausages. After cooking, slice sausages into ½ rounds.
Heat a large pan over medium heat, add about 1 Tbsp. of cooking oil. If desired, sauté sausage rounds just to get a golden brown colour. Remove sausages from the pan and set them aside.
Place onion and pepper in the frying pan, sauté for approximately 5 minutes, or until softened.
Add Texx-Mexx spice blend and cumin and stir for a minute to allow the spices to release their natural oils.
Add wine, stock or water and simmer, using a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits.
Add tomatoes, green chilis, black beans and/or corn. Stir to combine and bring up to a simmer.
Add cream cheese and stir gently to melt the cheese into the sauce.
Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.
Add the sliced sausage rounds, and keep the sauce at a gentle simmer until ready to serve.
Meanwhile, boil the pasta according to package directions. Drain and add to the pasta sauce. If your pan is not large enough to hold everything, transfer it to a large bowl and mix.
Serve with optional toppings. Serves 6.
Notes
Learn how to poach fresh sausages