Sausage, Morel, Asparagus Tart

Sorry for the lack of stimulation here over the past week.  Really slammed at work, a bit under the weather...yeah yeah. No, seriously though, having a cold is one of the most painful things for me as I tend to avoid drinking wine, as I can't enjoy the experience with a stuffed nose and diminished senses.  Since I can't appreciate wine in this state, I tend to just avoid even trying.  Boo hoo.  OK, I'll stop whining now and continue to enjoy beer for a few more days until I get back in wine drinking shape.

Until then, here's a dish I made a few weeks ago.  The general thought behind this idea was developed around creating a spring pot pie.  I would poach the morels per my usual method, then use the creamy mushroom liquid as a sauce within the pot pie to flavor vegetables like asparagus, carrots and peas.  I made a buttery pastry, rolled it out thinly (not thin enough though) and placed it into a nonstick muffin tin.  I blind baked the dough (with dried beans inside and nothing else), took it out of the oven and let it cool.  In the meantime, I cooked some sweet Italian-style sausage, blanched the vegetables, and added everything to the poached morels and the mushroom sauce.  After that, I just filled the tarts and served warm.  I obviously strayed from the pot pie concept, so I'll just have to call this a tart.  Spring pot pie has a better ring to it, so I'll need to experiment with that before the season ends.....

Comments

[sam]

This post inspired me to buy morels and asparagus at the market yesterday so I am going to toy around with something similar later today.

[sam]

ps - our asparagus guy told me that next week is the last asparagus week, so you had better be quick!

[kevin]

Joe,

I like the redesign. Nice and understated.

[joe]

thanks kevin! thought i'd lighten it up for the summer....