Sausages and lentils in the style of Umbria

Another winner from Domenica Marchetti, this was the ideal comfort food for a winter weekday. The lentils get cooked separately in water with a little end of celery, garlic and a bay leaf. The sausages -- I got the sweet Italian sausage from Broad Branch -- is sauteed, and then the chopped onion and more garlic is sauteed in that fat. For the finish, the sausage is added back into the pot, along with the cooked lentils, tomato sauce and beef broth and everything simmers for half an hour before you ladle it into a dish and enjoy. It is a soupy stew that has absorbed all the sausage flavor and developed a rich sauce.

Photo by Ankara via Wikimedia Commons

Earlier in the week, we tried another recipe from Morisson, equally simple. This was just boneless, skin-on chicken breasts seared in a skillet and then finished in the oven with green onions that have been sauteed in the chicken fat. The recipe calls for deglazing the skillet with Vin Jura, or as a substitute, dry sherry. Since I had some fino left over from a recent dinner, that's what I used and it was yummy. Served with brown rice.