Iberian Clams with Sausage
It used to be that about the only sausages one could get, other than breakfast sausages, were mild (sweet) and hot Italian. Now there are Cajun andouille sausages, Spanish chorizos, duck sausages, venison sausages and many more. The broad styles and flavors combined with the fact that sausages don’t take long to cook (some are already cooked) means that sausages are an important pantry item for cooking to beat the clock.
Many folks are wary about sausages because of their fat. One way minimize this is to use leaner sausages made with poultry or game. I usually keep a few pounds of turkey kielbasa in my freezer. Another way to cut the fat is to use more conventional pork sausages in smaller amounts. When I use pork sausage with hearty greens, I rarely use more than a half pound of sausage to serve four. Greens like kale, broccoli raab, and mustard greens take wonderfully to sausage. You can also combine the greens and sausage with pasta.
Sausage partners well with beans or other legumes like lentils or chickpeas. For example, you can put sausage (or a variety of sausages) in chili instead of beef or other cuts of pork. Another quick bean and sausage dish is cassoulet. Yes, cassoulet. With canned beans and sausages instead of dried beans and duck confit, you can make this normally all-day affair in a flash.
Try sausages in warm main-course salads such as a warm potato salad with sausage, celery, sweet onions and red bell peppers with a spicy vinaigrette. Or a red cabbage, cannellini bean, and sausage salad with a mustardy vinaigrette.
Years ago, when I was a student at the Restaurant School in Philadelphia, I discovered another remarkable match for sausages: seafood, shellfish in particular. The Spanish and Portuguese use this combination quite often and the recipe below reflects this Iberian preference. But we also see it in our own country, most often in Louisiana where gumbos of crab, oysters, and shrimp are commonly seasoned with andouille, a smoked pork sausage.
Sausages are good warm weather meats because they don’t need an oven. One cooking method is to put a pound of sausage links with a cup of water in a covered skillet over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Then uncover the skillet, let the water evaporate and allow the sausages to brown lightly. Sausages are easier to slice when cooked. Another method, for pasta tomato sauces and the recipe below, is to remove the sausage from its casings and cook it as you would any ground meat.
Iberian Clams
with Sausage
1 tablespoon olive
oil
12 ounces spicy sausage such as chorizo or hot Italian
1 large onion, 8 to 12 ounces
4 cloves garlic
One 15-ounce can stewed tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup bottled clam juice or fat-free, reduced sodium chicken stock
36 top neck clams or an equal amount of clams and mussels
10 to 12 sprigs parsley, preferably flat leaf, enough for 1/3 cup when chopped
Salt to taste
Crusty Italian or French bread
1) Put the oil a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Remove the casing from the sausage and add the sausage to the pan, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon until it browns.
2) While the sausage cooks, peel the onion and cut into sixths. Peel the garlic. Put the onion sections and garlic in a food processor and pulse until chopped, or chop the onion and garlic by hand. Add to the sausage. Increase the heat to high, stir well, and cook for 2 minutes.
3) Meanwhile, open the can of stewed tomatoes and put the tomatoes in the food processor with the thyme, paprika, and hot pepper flakes. Pulse just until combined. Add to the sausage. Rinse the food processor bowl out with the wine and broth and add to the pan. Cover and bring to a boil.
4) While the tomato mixture comes to a boil, quickly scrub the clams under cool running water. Add the clams to the pan. Cover and cook until the clams open, 5 to 8 minutes.
5) Meanwhile, chop the parsley. Add the parsley to the pan along with salt to taste. Stir, cover, and cook just until the clams open. Divide the clams, sausage, and broth among 4 soup plates. Serve with bread.
Serves 4.
Per serving: 635 calories, 46 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrate, 38 grams fat, 13 grams saturated fat, 136 mg cholesterol, 1521 mg sodium.