Summer Vegetable Goulash

When I was in college a friend of mine used to love to cook late night after coming home from the bars.  He would invent dishes based on whatever he might have around the apartment.  The result, however, usually ended up some nondescript orange slop.  My hopes were that my invented dish would not suffer the same fate.  A little bit of editing, and sobriety, are important when cooking.  The tendency of some chefs is to keep adding ingredients.  But that often ends up rather muddled.

We had two summer squash fresh from the garden. I also had a vegetable tray at my office with celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and bright colored bell peppers.  I decided I wanted to make a dish to incorporate all these great vegetables.

I sautéed some sausage in my Dutch oven with Italian pepper seasoning.  Then I pulled the meat out and added in a combination of a mirepoix and the holy trinity of cooking (celery, carrots, onion, and bell peppers).  I’m calling it “The fantastic four”.   These ingredients are called aromatics.  I also threw in a bay leaf, some rosemary, fresh parsley, salt & pepper.  

After letting the aromatics sweat and cook a little, I threw in garlic and the squash and tomatoes. After cooking them together for a little bit, I added back in the sausage, a small amount of tomato sauce, and a little red wine.  I finished it with a little mozzarella and provolone cheeses to bind everything together.  I served that atop some spiral noodles and voila:  summer vegetable goulash.

It may not be the prettiest picture, but it wasn’t orange slop.  The house smelled wonderful, and we got a lot of vegetables.  I call that a success.