A Lot of Flavor for a Little Effort

It's been a quiet week around here but with Ryan hitting the books the cooking has been largely on me; therefore, I decided to aim for a delicious, elegant meal that would satisfy our food-snobbery but require as little effort as possible!

There are a few recipes that have become internet legends for just this reason, repeatedly haunting the foodie blogs and message boards.  The first is a bread recipe that Mark Bittman popularized in his 2006 New York Times article, an adaptation from Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread technique.  The second is a pasta sauce from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking.  I paired these up with some fresh homemade fettucine and a recipe for Brussels sprouts (we had a big stalk of them from the market on Saturday, and some local organic lamb sausage in the freezer) from my dear friend Miranda, and we had a delicious feast.  The entire meal took a bit of time to prepare (about 18 hours in the case of the bread) but required almost no actual "work" and only 10 ingredients.

The results?  Well, see for yourself:

   
I have made this bread several times now and it is always delicious - and seemingly impossible to screw up.  It has a crisp, crackling crust that is formed by baking the loaf in a covered Dutch oven to keep the humidity high.  The pasta sauce (my first crack at this recipe) was also very good; it is rich and sweet and velvety.  Although not the best sauce I have ever made, it certainly had the highest deliciousness-to-effort-input ratio.  Finally, the sprouts done this way are so tasty, and so simple.  This meal is easy to repeat - even easier if you use store-bought pasta - and the taste output compared to the work required is just extraordinary.

Here are the recipes:

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
 
Ingredients
3 c. bread flour - I use a mixture of bread flour and whole wheat flour, and have used AP flour with no ill effect
1/4 tsp. yeast - the recipe originally calls for RapidRise; I always use Active Dry with no problem
2 tsp. salt
1 5/8 c. water

Mix all of these things together in a bowl until you get a sticky mess of dough.  Cover the mess and leave it alone for at least 12 hours, preferably 16 or even longer.  It should be a bubbly, sticky batter when you come back to it.  Pour the dough out onto a floured surface; with well-floured hands, fold it over onto itself a few times and then shape it quickly into a ball.  Place it seam-side down in a clean, well-floured bowl (are you noticing a theme here?  This dough is VERY sticky.) for a few more hours - usually 2 is enough.

A half-hour before you are ready to bake it, preheat your oven with a heavy Dutch oven inside to 450 degrees.  When the oven is ready, take the preheated pot out of the oven and CAREFULLY flip the dough into it - it will now be seam-side up, and look like a disaster, but it will turn into a work of art in the baking process.  Put the cover back on the pot and bake, covered, for 30 minutes.  Then remove the lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes or up to another 30, depending on how dark you like your crust.  Remove from the pot to cool on a rack, and enjoy.

Marcella Hazan's Simplest Ever Pasta Sauce
From The Essentials of Italian Cooking

Ingredients
800g (one large can) of whole tomatoes, preferably San Marzano or another Italian imported variety
5 tbsp butter
one medium sized sweet yellow onion, skin removed and cut in half
salt to taste

Dump all of these things in a pot and simmer for 45 minutes.  Stir occasionally to crush up the tomatoes.  Remove the onion (I save it for later use) and serve!

 Miranda's Brussels 
 Adapted from Thanksgiving 2008

Ingredients
Brussels sprouts - about 1 c. per person, rinsed, halved and cored good quality Italian sausage - about 1 link for every 2-3 servings
Olive oil

Steam the Brussels sprouts until just tender.  While they are cooking, fry the sausage in a little bit of olive oil - it can be done in slices, but I prefer to take it out of the casing.  When the sprouts are done and the sausage is caramelized, add the sprouts to the sausage and use a little water to deglaze the pan, stirring to coat the sprouts with the sausage bits.  Add any additional flavors here - I sometimes throw in garlic or onion powder, a dash of balsamic vinegar, a little wine or some red pepper flakes.  Toss together and brown the sprouts as desired, then serve.

Enjoy the fruits of slacking off in the kitchen!