Pizza topping on my pasta

November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ Connie

In the freezer section of many supermarkets today, you will find cold meat that looks like very coarsely grated beef (okay, if you want to be more precise, the stuff looks like dog food) labeled as Italian topping or Italian sausage. I first discovered it at Cherry Foodarama last year and the package said it was made by the JAKA Group. It was obviously meant as a pizza topping but I had other ideas — I was going to use it for pasta sauce in lieu of plain ground beef.

It was a successful experiment and I even brought a tray of pasta with the pizza topping in the sauce to a pot luck party on New Year’s Day. Why I didn’t get to blog about it, I have no idea. At any rate, here I am almost a year later posting an entry about my pasta with pizza topping.

Italian sausage pasta

If the noodles look picture pretty, I have my daughter Sam to thank for. Or, perhaps, blame would be a better word. We were at Clark Field over the weekend, had a blast with the Sale! Sale! Sale! at the duty-free shops and among the loot we brought home were five packages of pasta in shapes that I don’t normally find in local supermarkets. The pasta that I used for tonight’s dinner, however, was NOT on sale. At $2.68 for a 500 gram pack, it wasn’t cheap at all. But Sam was so enamored with the spirals that she put on her best Pretty Please! face and proceeded to dump the package into the grocery cart.

The recipe… For the pasta sauce, you will need: 250 grams of Italian topping, 2 large white onions, 2 large green bell peppers, 700 grams of plump and juicy tomatoes, a ham bone, a cup and a half of red wine, 1 bay leaf, 5 tablespoonfuls of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, a heaping teaspoonful of pesto and about a tablespoonful of sugar to balance the acidity of the tomatoes. For garnish, some chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.

Peel and chop the onions. Dice the tomatoes. Core the bell peppers, remove the seeds and veins, and chop.

Heat the olive oil in a pot. Add the thawed Italian topping, chopped bell peppers and onions and cook until the onions start to turn translucent. Add the diced tomatoes, bay leaf and ham bone. Stir. Pour in the red wine. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.

If you’re wondering why salt and pepper were not added at this point, it’s because both the Italian topping and the ham bone contain a lot of salt. In fact, the ham bone and Italian topping are already highly seasoned so add salt and pepper towards the end to make sure that the pasta sauce won’t turn out too salty.

Meanwhile, cook 200 to 250 grams of pasta according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.

After 45 minutes, the liquid should have been reduced considerably and the sauce should have started to thicken. Taste the sauce, add salt and pepper. Add sugar as well just for balance. Simmer for another 15 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Add the pesto, stir then turn off the heat. Remove the ham bone and bay leaf. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and toss to coat every strand with sauce. Transfer to a serving platter, sprinkle with chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. Serve hot with you favorite bread.

October 30, 2007  Print This Post   
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Comments

5 Responses to “Pizza topping on my pasta”
  1. Rey says:
    October 31, 2007 at 10:38 am

    You really make cooking look so easy and your ability to improvise, mix and match is really great.

    Reply
  2. Connie says:
    October 31, 2007 at 11:07 am

    I think that’s what makes cooking fun. It’s like playing and discovering. :)

    Reply
  3. mely says:
    October 31, 2007 at 1:01 pm

    Good job,Sam!!!!

    Reply
  4. Very Veron says:
    November 1, 2007 at 7:28 am

    Hi, Connie!

    Where can i get a ham bone? I’ve been to all our major groceries and meat shops but they don’t have a ham bone. Can I improvise?

    I really want to try this pasta recipe.

    Reply
  5. Connie says:
    November 1, 2007 at 11:11 am

    Very Veron, Majestic Ham has stalls at Cherry’s (Congressional and Marcos Highway) and Shopwise (Libis).

    Reply
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