Hotbox Hipster

do you love keilbasa but never know what to do with it beyond a simple sandwich with some fried onions and peppers? with no disrespect to the pittsburgh fave keilbasa sammich… i offer up a more gourmet alternative for your linked buddy. this recipe is one that i made up one day when i realized how delicious keilbasa was cut thinly and fried in a skillet.  take heed: it shows some major restraint not to eat half the plate of the crispy little circles as you prep the rest of your meal… for real.  when you fry them up in some olive oil over hight heat… they take on an incredibly dark almost carmelized hue and become all crispy around the edges.  as i show you the before and after photo below, note the juice on the plate with the cooked pieces resulted from deglazing the pan with a generous amount of white wine. (i’ll explain later) reserving some of this liquid to add back in at end with cooked keilbasa adds amazing depth of flavor to the whole dish.

and the after shot… what a fabulous transformation.

so here’s what i did to create this go to week night dinner.  dice up half of a large onion. set aside. slice your keilbasa on a slight diagonal- about a quarter inch thick. set aside. open a small can of diced tomatoes. place a half a bag of frozen peas in a cereal bowl and set aside. dice a colored bell pepper and set aside.  uncork a bottle of white wine (i used pinot grigio tonight). open a can of chicken broth- you will use less than half of it. open a small can of tomato paste. (you will use about two tablespoons) – ok here goes.  first thing- start a large pot of water boiling so that you can cook up a bag of wide egg noodles.   do a couple of swirls of olive oil in a stainless skillet. (if you use non stick, you will not get a lovely coating on the bottom to be able to deglaze- so opt for a steel pot or skillet) heat oil over md high heat. once hot, add your keilbasa. give your downsides a chance to darken up before stirring, but be careful not to burn it! stir, and continue cooking until you are satisfied w the color. (see above visual) remove from skillet to a plate and set aside. if there is a large amount of grease in skillet, dump into a safe vessel to trash it.  (can from your recyle bin) with skillet over medium heat, slowly and carefully add a generous pour of white wine to deglaze pan. stir to release brown bits from bottom of pan. add your diced onion, and cook for five minutes until some of the juice is absorbed by the onions. add your bell pepper, the tomato paste, the diced tomatoes, and the peas. stir. please add any herbs you love at this point. i added a generous pinch of dried thyme, a shake of garlic powder, a shake of dried oregano, a half a tsp of salt, a shake of red pepper flakes, and a go round of black pepper.

once you have all of these things in your pot and give it a stir, you will note it is a little thick. add a bit of chicken broth to give the ingredients something to simmer in.  i never measure… so maybe a cup??  add in your cooked keilbasa, stir again-  and simmer uncovered for fifteen minutes or so. add your drained and rinsed egg noodles back into the empty pot you cooked them in.  carefully pour your lovely creation onto the salted egg noodles and stir to combine.  serve up with a nice crusty  loaf of bread- or more simply with a single glass of white wine.  enjoy!!