The Best Wurst

My friend Lisa is my kind of cook, easy-going and not too particular about quantities or even specific ingredients.  Witness her original recipe here, which calls for "chunks" of most of the ingredients, and a vague "white" cheese for her wonderful Wurst Salade.  I probably haven't ever made this recipe the same way twice, and it STILL tastes great every time!

Lisa's hand-written recipe.

Don't worry about trying to read the recipe card above, I'll type the recipe out again.  You'll be starting with a sausage ring.  I like beef sausage, but you can use any kind you like.  I'd never tried ring sausage before Lisa and I made this salad together one hot summer day in Iowa City.  It just wasn't on my Mom's list of things she liked to cook.  I thought it looked suspiciously fatty, but one bite made me change my mind.  This is good stuff!

You'll also need a pound of "white cheeze, chunked" (Lisa is often a gleefully ironic speller), which can be anything from farmer cheese to provolone to mozzarella.  I used farmer cheese, but if you can't find any, select the white cheese of your choice- probably any kind except Swiss would be fine.

 

You'll also need 6 tomatoes, so this is a great summer dish to use your homegrown tomatoes.  Our CSA, Foxfire Acres, has a high tunnel for tomatoes, so we've been getting homegrowns practically since the first week of June.  Although the recipe calls for rings of raw onion, I left them out this time.  I don't usually eat them in the finished dish, but they do add a nice flavor.

I decided to use fresh herbs, and cut two large sprigs of basil and oregano.  We didn't grow fresh marjoram, and were out of the dried, so I had to skip that part.  I think I could have doubled the fresh herbs, and the recipe is so fool-proof it was good even without the marjoram.  You'll want to cut the herbs into little shreds if you're using fresh.  Pick the nicest smaller leaves and cut into shreds with either scissors or use a sharp knife and rock it across the leaves you've set on your cutting board. 

 



Ready to serve!



Here is how I adapted Lisa's recipe:

Lisa's Wurst Salade

1 ring beef sausage

1 pound farmer cheese, cubed

6 tomatoes, cut into bite-size chunks

1 onion, cut into rings- optional

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon dried basil OR 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

1 tablespoon dried oregano OR 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped

1 tablespoon dried marjoram OR 2 tablespoons fresh marjoram, chopped

1.  Fry up the sausage in a non-stick frypan.  Cool and cut into bite-size chunks;  place in a large serving bowl.

2.  Add cheese, tomatoes and (optionally) onions. 

3.  Mix vinegar and oil together. Whisk in herbs.  Pour vinegar/oil dressing over salad ingredients.

Note:  Jeffrey thought that there was too much dressing for the amount of salad, but the amount specified marinates the salad ingredients and keeps the dish from being too dry.  This salad tastes even better after soaking in the dressing overnight (if you can wait that long!).  Fast and easy to prepare, this is a winner for potlucks and summer picnics.

Jeffrey and Juli's Basil, Feta and Tomato Pasta Salad

This is a great salad for summer time, especially when home-grown tomatoes are ripe.  It would be a great dish to bring to a potluck- the recipe makes a lot and the ingredients are fairly inexpensive.  If you grow your own tomatoes and basil, as we do, really the only expense is for the feta cheese and a pound of pasta.

Now, our tomatoes are nowhere close to the eating stage.  They're still pretty little yellow flowers at the moment!  But we couldn't wait for our homegrown tomatoes to make this tasty side dish.

Jeffrey took my original recipe and greatly improved it by adding some heat from crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, and black pepper.  We'll be serving this pasta salad a lot! 

Jeffrey and Juli's Basil, Feta and Tomato Pasta Salad

yield - 6-8 servings

4                 quarts water
1                 teaspoon table salt
1                 pound medium shell pasta (or campanelle,
                     farfalle or other shapes, to preference)
1                 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered
8                 ounces feta cheese, diced
1/2              cup chopped fresh basil
1/4              cup extra-virgin olive oil
2                 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2              teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2              teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper


Add water and salt to a large pot.  Bring water to a boil, add pasta and cook per directions until al dente.  Drain pasta and add to a large bowl.

Add tomatoes, feta cheese, basil, olive oil, garlic and black pepper to the bowl with the pasta.  Toss to thoroughly mix.  Serve as is, or refrigerate and serve cold.

Sesame Noodle Salad with Shredded Chicken

Once a month my office has a potluck.  The most recent one was this past Wednesday.   I was actually off work for a couple days due to feeling under the weather, so I unfortunately missed the potluck, but since I'd made my addition to the festivities a couple days ahead of time, Juli was able to drop it off at my workplace.  Juli and I only got to enjoy a few bites of this one, but when I returned to work several people had good things to say about the potluck in general, and my dish more specifically.

The theme for this latest potluck was "salads and healthy foods."   My entry was a Sesame Noodle Salad with Shredded Chicken.    I made this using a recipe from The New Best Recipe, which (along with the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook) has become one of my go-to cookbooks when I'm looking for solid recipes, as well as one of the first books I consult when I design recipes of my own.  I made this one as written, save that I used pre-cooked Chinese egg noodles (bought frozen at an Asian grocery and thawed for use with this recipe) in place of fresh and used chili paste in place of hot pepper sauce.  I also garnished the finished salad with some sliced almonds.

It's a pretty basic recipe, really.  Noodles, shredded carrots, scallions, toasted sesame seeds and shredded bits of broiled chicken breast are tossed with a tasty dressing made of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, chili pepper paste, brown sugar and peanut butter and served cold.    Put simply, this salad is delicious.   The sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and peanut butter give the whole dish a rich, nut flavor and fragrance, enhanced with a bit of sweetness (courtesy the sugar and carrots) and heat (due to the pepper paste and garlic). 

I wasn't happy to have to miss the potluck, but I am pleased I was able to provide something that was a big hit.   I'm probably going to make another batch in the near future, but this time I'll make it just for me and Juli.  It saves well for a few days, making for tasty leftovers.