Spaghetti Marinara with Hot Italian Sausage
I’m a big fan of The Palm Restaurant chain. It’s one of the high-end steakhouses comparable to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Morton’s of Chicago, and Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House. What makes it different is that since The Palm started in New York City as an Italian restaurant, it has a great selection of Italian items on the menu. Also, though I prefer the steaks at some of the other places (in particular Del Frisco’s), The Palm wins on salads and sides.
My first experience with The Palm was a few years ago at their Houston location, when I took my parents there for dinner. It was then that I discovered the sliced tomato and onion salad with blue cheese dressing. It’s my favorite salad in the world. When I’m in Las Vegas, I almost always stop by the location at The Forum Shops at Caesars for a salad and martini. Makes for a great afternoon snack! I loved the blue cheese dressing so much that when I got back to Austin a few days later, I emailed the address listed on the restaurant’s website and asked if I could get the recipe. Two days later I had a response from one of their executive chefs. He sent not only the recipe but also his personal cell phone number in case I had any questions. My love of The Palm was sealed. I’ve since been to their original Manhattan location, the one in San Antonio, and the shop in Las Vegas. I’m craving it right now.
As you might expect, I was pretty excited a few years ago when they came out with a cookbook, titled The Palm Restaurant Cookbook: Recipes and Stories From the Classic American Steakhouse. And I was not disappointed. It’s a great cookbook with all of their classic dishes. A real surprise, though, was how simple the recipes are. Many of them only have a few ingredients, and everything I’ve tried has been great. Last weekend a friend came to me asking for advice on how to cook his steaks for Valentine’s Day dinner. He wanted to do them on the grill, but he had no experience grilling steaks. I sent him The Palm recipe, knowing that it would work for him (you sear the steaks in a skillet and then finish them in the oven). It did.
Another recipe that works well is their very simple marinara sauce, which is made with canned Italian plum tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, white wine, fresh basil, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. (If you want to know the proportions, buy the cookbook. You won’t regret it! Oh, and of course the book has the blue cheese dressing recipe.)
After making the marinara, I browned some hot loose Italian sausage in a skillet (I got mine from Central Market - a pound of sausage will yield enough for two people with enough left for a nice lunch), drained off the excess grease, and mixed in some of the marinara. Put that over spaghetti, add a bit of finely grated (a microplane is awesome for this) Parmesan-Romano, and you’ve got yourself a great dish!
Then, you can freeze the rest of the marinara and use it for something else later. Perfect!
Kyle
