Pasta with Carmelized Fennel and Onion with Sausage (FM)

• Salt
• 3 large or 4 medium fennel bulbs, cored and sliced
• 1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
• Black pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces any pasta, preferably whole wheat
• 1/2 cup white wine, optional
• 8 ounces hot or sweet Italian sausage

Mise en place.

Cook sausage in 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat until nicely browned.

Cook onion and fennel over medium-low heat, stirring every 5 minutes until the vegetables have given up their liquid and are almost sticking to the pan.  This should probably take you a good half hour.

Later you add two more tablespoons of olive oil, raise the heat to medium-high and try to brown this stuff.  Bittman suggests that you can do the last part in 5-10 minutes.  I'm sure I was at it for a bit longer but couldn't bring myself to try for "nicely browned."

Pretty satisfying dish with just a handful of ingredients.  Crazy how much the fennel reduced in volume after all that caramelizing makes sense.
The main recipe does not include sausage, but I don't think I would've had as positive an experience if I had left out the hot Italian sausage I used.  There's even a sidebar on the page about adding small amounts of meat to pasta sauces from the beginning.

Pasta with Smashed Peas, Prosciutto, and Scallions (FM)

• Salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 ounces prosciutto, chopped
• 1 bunch scallions, white and green parts separated, all chopped
• Black pepper
• 3 cups fresh or thawed frozen peas
• 8 ounces any pasta, prefereably whole wheat
• 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, optional

Boiling pasta.  Apparently I never got around to taking a mise en place photo.

Cook prosciutto in oil over medium heat until crisp.

Add white parts of scallions (Yeah, I know they look green.).  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for a few more minutes.

Add peas and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add some of the pasta cooking water and roughly mash peas.  Toss together with pasta, scallions tops, and pecorino and this dish pretty much amounts to awesomeness.

Pasta with Seared Tomatoes and Ricotta (FM)

• Salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more as neeeded
• 4 lbs ripe Roma (plum) tomatoes, cored and halved lengthwise
• Black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 8 ounces any pasta, preferably whole wheat
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese

Blacken tomatoes over medium-high heat until deeply colored on both sides.  Or well, when they are super-super cooked as I did them.

Combine all the tomatoes and garlic and cook for a minute or so.

I forgot to reserve pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce, but the tomatoes' juices were runny enough.  Basically toss the pasta, basil, and ricotta in with the sauce.

Pretty satisfying dish for such simple ingredients.  I cooked another pasta dish from Food Matters just tonight that was great as well.  Really a roll here with this cookbook again.  The dish has everything it needs.