Coming back from a long (end of summer, to boot) holiday weekend is a great time to count our small victories: those little moments in life where we find that sparkle of success. It’s the accumulation of all those small victories that propel us through a day (whether we acknowledge them or not) and when our heads hit the pillow at night we have that moment of ‘yea… not so bad, not so bad… zzzZZ’.
Small victories include:
• actually remembering to take the grocery list to the grocery store. • watering the lawn before the unforgiving August sun comes calling. • getting the city to fix the giant pothole / canyon in front of your house (THIS is actually a very large victory in New Orleans) • remembering your umbrella. • buying anchovies and using them in a recipe successfully despite their smell and general creepiness. • and eating an entire burrito with your hands… not a fork and knife.
All petite victories that get us through A to B to C to D in a day and gosh-dangit… they deserve recognition and celebration.
Small Victories is also a kitchen concept, pep talk, and cookbook by Julia Turshen.
Kitchen victories come as we tuck little bits of knowledge, confidence, and intuition under our belts in the kitchen. Everything we learn is a little bit of something. Boiling water… that’s a victory… just think of all the pasta, grits, and legumes in your future! Turning a brisket into ragu or tacos or Sunday night dinner. Look atcha werkin’. Making broth for soups and learning how to soup that soup into soup anytime you want soup? Gosh that’s victory that deserves a parade.
This book is such a solid tool… and approachable and endearing, too! New favorite, for sure.
Also, we’re making pasta and sometimes warm dinner not popcorn dinner is a victory in itself.
We’re making pasta dinner!
This is very versatile is flavor which means… whatcha got? Let’s be adventurous. Let’s pasta it.
We’ll start by browning spicy Italian sausage. Browned to crisp. Browned to very well browned. Browned until bits stick to the bottom of the pan. That’s the sign of good things afoot.
Onions are cooked past translucent to browned in the sausage fat. Garlic, too. Naturally.
Here’s the thing about anchovies: they’re smelly. They’re smelly especially if you’re not eating them but someone around you is eating them. Same goes for bananas… but that’s neither here not there.
Anchovies will add a depth, saltiness, and general umami flavor to the pasta that’s simply delicious. Victory, indeed.
Whole peeled tomatoes in their juice. Try to get the good Italian kind. I think they’re the sweetest and most flavorful.
Tomatoes are broken down to chunky using a wooden spoon. This will be rustic and deeply satisfying. Trust it.
Sausage is added back to the simmering tomatoes and onions.
Now we’ll add the saltiness by way of coarsely chopped capers and chopped green olives.
Sea salt and lots of black pepper too!
Crushed red pepper flakes are also a supreme thought.
To this simple tomato sauce, we’ll add a good dose of reserved salted pasta water. Adding seasoning and a bit of starch.
Julia notes that the small victory of this recipe is taking the pasta out of the pasta water just before it’s completely cooked. Reserve some of the pasta water, adding it to the sauce, and toss in the pasta and allow the pasta to finish cooking in the sauce, absorbing all of those delicious savory flavors.
Orecchiette is my favorite pasta shape. Little ears. They’re little bowls for the tomato, sausage, olive flavors.
Top with a bonkers amount of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.
Serve in generous heaps with cold beer. Best eaten with rowdy company on the couch. We are victorious and full.
Small Victories: Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home Cooking Triumphs by Julia Turshen
PrintVery Versatile Orecchiette with Sausage + Parmesan
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- kosher salt
- 1 pound orecchiette pasta
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 ounces spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 anchovy filets
- 1 large (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped green olives
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped capers
- sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
- parmesan cheese, for topping
- fresh parsley, for topping
Other Options
- 8 ounces baby spinach
- 1 cup frozen peas
- sauteed mushrooms
- crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add kosher salt and dried pasta. Cook until al dente (according to the package instructions). Drain, reserving about 2 cups of pasta water to add some to the sauce later. Allow pasta to rest while you make the sauce.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil and crumble in the sausage. Cook, breaking the sausage with the back of a spoon until the sausage it very well browned and the fat is rendered. Spoon the sausage into a bowl and set aside.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the onions to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and stir for 2 minutes more.
- Add the anchovy filets and use the back of a spoon to break up into the onions are garlic.
- Add the tomatoes and their juice. Break up with the spoon to create smaller tomato bites.
- Return the cooked sausage to the pan along with the olives and capers. Stir. Add about 3/4 cup pasta water to thin the sauce, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Stir pasta into the sauce, adding more pasta water as necessary.
- Sprinkle with fresh parmesan and fresh parsley and enjoy warm.
- Add the other optional ingredients to the sauce as it cooks if you’d like and enjoy pasta night!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
Edlyn
I think we had the same idea this week. I put anchovies in my pasta too and it was 100% the best life decision. I think I’ll really enjoy Small Victories because that’s what makes my world go round. Oh PS: The blog post mentions green onions and I think you may have meant olives (right above the picture where’re you’re adding the olives). I got your back.
Harry
This is one of my favorite pasta shapes too! I think we should all celebrate the small daily wins in our lives.
H. Bowden
Amy
This looks Devine! I’m making my grocery list so it can be dinner tomorrow night. My guy hates anchovies. If I leave them
out will it compromise the recipe?
Carly
I made this on Friday night and the anchovies are super hard to detect. Unless your man is super duper sensitive, I would think you could add ’em in without him even knowing they’re there. That umami flavor is pretty delightful… I would hesitate to forgo it.
Michelle Goldsmith
I always use conchiglie pasta, which are shells, so they are a bit more closed that the orecchietti and seem to capture the bits in the sauce better. Lovely recipe, will be making very soon!
weresuchabigmess
Gorgeous photos as always. You are my Julia Child of the blogging world Joy.
Julia Turshen
I love you Joy The Baker. xooxoxoxoxox
Mary Frances
So thorough and such a cute post, thank you for sharing! Sounds like every single bit of flavor is being extracted from these ingredients and I am all for that!
Laurie Crouch
Everything about this looks so good. Except the anchovies. Sorry, but I will just add a little more salt. Just can’t stomach the thought of them!
Considering The Radish
This looks fantastic. I’m not huge into anchovies, but they’re so nice dissolved into a tomato sauce that I can look past their peculiar fishy-ness.
Katie
Okay, this looks amazing, but HOW do you get orecchiette to not stick together while cooking? I always end up with stacks of orecchiette, with the middle ones not fully cooked, and it totally ruins the cuteness of the pasta shape.
joythebaker
You’re right! They can totally stick together. I give them a few good stirs in the boiling water throughout the cooking process to try to minimize the stacking but it always happens to some. They remind me of a stack of hats when they stick together, right?
Edie T
I make this in a cast iron skilket, adding bite-sized chunks of eggplant and finish off in oven with a thin top layer of parm cheese. Rustic flavor that’s good with crusty bread and a hearty red wine. Perfect for cool fall nights.
joythebaker
Sounds delicious!
Sophie
Just a fast comment about cooking in cast iron pans/pots. They react to tomatoes/ tomato sauce…so please be careful if
using a cast iron pan if cooking with acidic and/or tomato-type of foods.
peppermintdolly
This looks fantastic!! And I love your photography here!
Rxx
http://www.peppermintdolly.com
francetaste
At first I thought you were using little rounds of sausage, and it seemed so perfect with the rounds of pasta. This looks good, too, of course! What a great mix of flavors–capers, olives, anchovies, tomatoes….
I am with you on anchovies. I manage to put them on pizzas, and I make pissaladière (a kind of foccacia topped with onions and anchovies–specialty of the south of France) pretty regularly. But I can’t get further. Must try–they are a “superfood.” Like sardines, which are worse aesthetically (fishier, sometimes with heads!!!).
katie
I love Orecchietti, the fact they’re nicknamed little ears fills me with childish glee. This recipe sounds amazing, I’ll certainly be whipping this one up very soon!
Katie xoxo
Kelly | Maverick Baking
This looks perfect, sausage pasta is always a winner. Glad to see I’m not the only one who likes a ludicrous amount of parmesan cheese on my pasta too!