Easy chicken noodle soup

Another chilly day so another go around at cooking...twice in a weekend is quite a record for me. Ever since I moved into the city, it's been more and more difficult to work up the desire to cook. I think it's a function of not having a dishwasher and having very limited counter space.

Today, I decided to whip up a really easy chicken noodle soup.

Ingredients:
2 liters free-range organic chicken broth
1 onion
A few cloves of garlic
Sage, parsley, oregano
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 pack chopped chicken thighs
Mushrooms
2-3 potatoes
Carrots
Celery
Olive oil
Egg noodles

Steps:
1 - Boil water, salt and throw in egg noodles (cooking time: about 8 minutes)
2 - Chop up potatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms

3 - Sautee potatoes in olive oil and a bit of water until soft

4 - Take out potatoes and sautee carrots, celery and mushrooms until soft

5 - Pour potatoes back in and add 2 quarts of chicken broth

6 - Chop an onion into rough sections and drop in food chopper


7 - Pulse a few times until the onion turns to this consistency:

8 - Add onion, sage, parsley, oregano and 2 bay leaves to soup

9 - Add chicken thighs to soup

10 - Skim off all excess fat

11 - Ladle into soup bowl and enjoy :D

Orrechiette with sausage, yellow zucchini and sage

A really cold, blustery day like today calls for a really hearty, homely meal. I saw this recipe a while back on Avenue food and really wanted to give it a try.

The Ingredients:

A nice light, fragrant and inexpensive (~$6) bottle of olive oil from Trader Joe's.

Fresh ground pepper

Sea salt

Fresh sage for a flavor of fall

The preparation:

Harry's Homemade Sweet Italian Link Sausage with Peppers Onions Sausage after being fully cooked

Browned sausage

Pretty yellow zucchini. I'm not sure how much of a difference there is between green and yellow zucchini but these were fantastic.

Innards

Chopped and lightly salted

Some color added

Finished:

All ingredients incorporated and a splash of white wine to perk up the flavor a bit.

Plated! This was a really awesome dish and perfect for a cold day. The flavors worked really well and the dish was really hearty. Definitely crave-worthy - I'll be making this again soon!

Recipe:
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CAVATELLI WITH ZUCCHINI, SAUSAGE & SAGE

3 links Italian sausage

3 small zucchini

3 cloves minced garlic

1 pound fresh cavatelli

12 sage leaves, cut into thin ribbons

6 tablespoons butter (I used about 3 tbsp and upped the olive oil content)

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Salt & pepper

White wine

Put water on to boil for the cavatelli. Cook sausages in a covered pan with ½ inch water until cooked through, about ten minutes. Cut each sausage in half lengthwise, then slice into ½–inch-thick half moons. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise, then slice into ½-inch-thick half moons. Brown sausage in olive oil, remove from the pan. Brown the zucchini, cooking at fairly high heat so it takes on color but doesn’t get mushy. Remove zucchini from the pan. Boil the cavatelli. Meanwhile, add butter to the pan and cook until it begins to brown and smell nutty. (Take care not to burn it!) Add garlic, sage, and red pepper flakes and stir about thirty seconds. Add sausage and zucchini back to the pan, season with salt and pepper, add a splash of white wine and mix in the cooked cavatelli. Served with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

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Making udon from scratch