Cooking with Mom: “Booke” Pasta

I’ve been sick the past few days, in a big tussle with a head cold. I almost forgot that I post a recipe on Thursdays … so, I’m a bit late, but better than not at all, I think.

Why am I doing this? Sharing my thoughts and my souped-up, paired-down, homemade, non-expert recipes.

Beside the obvious – that I love food and I write because it’s part of who I am  – I think I am hoping to encourage home cooks that you can be creative, have fun in the kitchen and serve good food. And that being a working mom or dad, or busy person of any sort does not mean that you can’t make something great for your family. And it doesn’t need to come from a freezer box or a can.  Certainly cans, etc. are involved to make things quick, but the fact that You put a piece of your creative Self into it somehow makes it good and right and worthy.

I worked full time in my husband’s and my business all the years my children were growing up. I can’t tell you how often meal planning and grocery buying got put to the side because of our busy schedules, which included my sons’ baseball, soccer, piano, Tae Kwon Do, guitar, … you know what I’m talking about. Crazy busy.  And because of all that, I can’t tell you how often I looked in the fridge and the cupboards, and said, “What the heck am I going to make for supper?”

Years of this repeated question made me the shoot-from-the-hip creative cook I am today. My sons would pass through the kitchen and say to me, “Mom, that smells good. Whatcha making?  And I’d say, I’m making booke (sounds like “soup”) because I didn’t have a recipe, I couldn’t name it, I just took what I had from my fridge and my cupboards and put things together based on my own sense of taste … and now it’s the Only way I really love to cook.

The other night, after a busy day and no desire to order pizza or go out, I perused my kitchen for what was available … and here’s what came of it.

Mike, my husband, said it was damn good. And, yes, it was.

“Booke” Pasta

2 chicken sausages

1 small round of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 quarter-inch slice of onion, diced

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

12 spears of asparagus, cut into thirds

6 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup Alfredo sauce

2/3 cup white wine

4-6 oz. of pasta (I used brown rice spaghetti)

Parmesan cheese

In a pan, at medium heat, brown sausages on all sides; change to low heat, add ¼ cup water, cover pan and let sausages simmer and steam through.

While sausages are cooking, cook pasta in a pot to al dente and drain.  In another sauté pan on medium heat, add oil, garlic and onion; cook to soften slightly.  Add mushrooms and asparagus. Sauté until asparagus is bright green; add tomatoes; sauté for 2-3 minutes; add Alfredo sauce and white wine.  Heat through.

Add cooked pasta to pan and mix. Remove sausages from pan and cut in half-inch slices.

Plate pasta mixture in bowls; scatter sausage pieces on top of pasta. Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Serve this delicious “booke” to someone you love.

Eat well. Be happy.