Sunday Gravy in a Pressure Cooker

You will see at No Smoke No Pressure that I got a very cool pasta press for my Kitchenaid mixer.  When I first went to use it I was so excited about the pasta, that I forgot about the sauce, so when it came time to get the sauce ready I was short on time, but didn't want to compromise.  The pessure cooker came to the rescue.

Sunday Gravy is a traditional Italian term to describe a sauce that was usually made on Sundays.  It was primarily based with several meats and would simmer all day and fill the house with terrific aromas.  You can find all sorts of Italian-American recipes for this dish.  Don't worry about exactness, use what meats you might have on hand including bracciole and meatballs.  It's more about combining great ingredients and feasting with friends and family.

For my Sunday Gravy I went with on-hand ingredients.  I coarsely chopped some carrots, garlic and onions and sauteed them in the pressure cooker.  I then added my meats: hot Italian sausage, meatballs, cut-up pork spareribs.  I also added 1/2 cup water.  I sealed the pressure cooker, turned to med-high heat and let it come up to pressure - at that time I reduced the heat to med-low (high enough to sustain pressure) and let it cook for 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes I used the quick-release method to release the steam (where you open the vent - be sure its pointed away from you).  I then added tomatoes and my seasoning.  I re-sealed and brought to pressure againa and cooked an additional 10 minutes.

This sauce was a gorgeous meat based sauce.  Each meat provided its own texture and flavour.  The tomatos and seasoning weren't prevelant, but played a strong supporting role.  Topped on my homemade rigatoni it was a hearty, delicious, comforting meal. 

Sunday Gravy - Pressure Cooker
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, large dice
1 large carrot, large dice
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 lb meatballs
1/2 lb spareribs, chopped up
1/2 lb hot Italian sausage, chopped
14 oz tin of tomatoes
14 oz tin of tomatoes
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
4 leaves fresh basil (if available) plus some for garnish
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Heat oil in the pressure cooker and saute the onions, carrots and garlic for about 2-3 minutes until softened.  Add all the meats at once along with water.  Secure the lid and turn heat to medium-high.  Once it meets pressure, reduce heat to medium-low and cook at pressue for 20 minutes.  When ready, use the quick release method (release steam away from you).

Add the remaining ingredients to the pot.  Resecure the lid and bring back to pressure and cook for 20 minutes.  Use the quick release method again and serve. 

Garnish with chopped fresh basil and grated parmesan.

Grown-up Lasagna

The thing that I love about lasagna is that there are no hard rules on its composition. I'm sure in some family/household traditions there are hard and fast rules, but what I'm referring to is the fact that you won't find a repertoire of common methods on how to make lasagna. The possibilities are endless.


Tonight's lasagna is comprised of a form of a Bolognese sauce (another recipe with countless variations), spinach, cottage cheese (in lieu of ricotta), and of course cheese to top it with. Why on this blog vs. my other one? Because I used the pressure cooker for the sauce.


You see, a good Bolognese sauce, needs at least 45 minutes of simmering for the flavours to meld. Although this is a comforting process, when you want to get on with the rest of the meal it can be daunting. So a speedy approach brings a new form of comfort.

For the sauce, I sautéed a smoky alder bacon in the pressure cooker. This is the grown-up part. The smoky bacon imparts a flavour that is quite distinct from traditional meat sauces. It's obvious and subtle at the same time. After just cooking the bacon (not crisp though) I finished the sauce in the pressure cooker via the instructions below.  

Note, I used an unneccesary amount of mushrooms, only becaue I had to use them up.  The end result was still yummy so I wouldn't deter from using a large amount.

Pre-Pressure Cooking Picture:

10 Minutes Later - a finished sauce!

I assembled the lasagna in usual fashion (again, have a gander at the instructions) and baked for 35 minutes.


This was delicious. A grown-up meal as the smokiness lent a stronger flavour.  

It was kitty-licking good (note we generally don't allow our cat to eat any human food, let alone lick our plates, but this was so funny, we took time out to take a picture).

Grown-up Lasagna
Bolognese Sauce in the Pressure Cooker


6 strips alder smoked bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
8 large mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 large carrot grated
1.5 lbs ground beef
2 cans tomato paste
1 tbsp bouillon powder
1 cup water


Cottage Cheese Filling - mix all together:
2 cups cottage cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste


4 cups spinach, steamed and seasoned
Lasagna noodles prepared according to package directions.
Grated cheese (mozzarella, marble, jack or mixture).


Bolognese Sauce:
Heat the pressure cooker over med-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until cooked but not browned. Add the onion and mushroom and cook until softened. Add the grated carrot and mix through. Add the ground beef and stir to mix. Cook until there is no more pink in the beef, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste and bouillon powder and stir to mixed. Add the water. The water is important to ensure enough liquid in the pressuer cooker for cooking under pressure.


Secure the pressure cooker and keep on medium-high heat until it reaches pressure. Once at pressure reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pressure reduce on its own.


Assemble the Lasagna, adding layers as follows:
Line the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of the bolognese sauce.
Lasagna noodles.
Bolognese sauce.
Lasagna noodles.
Cottage cheese filling.
Spinach.
Lasagna noodles.
Meat Sauce.
Cheese to top.
Sage leaves to garnish.


Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes until bubbling and browned.

"Eat Down the Fridge" Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce

I wasn't quite sure if I should call this blog the above name or "dirty every bowl and pan that you have in your kitchen" as that's pretty much how it turned out. And part of the repertoire of pans that I dirtied in this process, quite to my surprise, was the pressure cooker, as I was certain this was going to be a non-pressure cooker blog.

So in case you missed it, this week is Eat Down the Fridge Week. Unlike my last blog, I'm back in my primary home so it was like a whole new endeavour with all new ingredients needing to be used up. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you don't like to dirty a lot of dishes) I had the makings for a pretty good meal. I had a slab of leftover pancetta and a partial container of ricotta. I also had a package of dried pasta baskets (not quite shells, but close) that I acquired in August at the Feast of St. Anthony in Boston's Northend, that I've been wondering for sometime what I would do with. This was my big break!

I recalled seeing a rerun on the Food Network with Chef Giada De Laurentiis where she was making some sort of stuffed shells. So that's where I started, and sure enough, I found a recipe by her that could utilize my three rogue ingredients -Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce.

Jumping right into the recipe, I got to work chopping, then sautéing, my pancetta . I also started the water for par-cooking my pasta shells. With two pots going on the cooktop, this is when I realized , that in my excitement to use up the above mentioned ingredients, I failed to read through the entire recipe and check to make sure I had everything on hand. I had two key missing ingredients:
I'm totally embarrassed to admit that I did not have a single clove of garlic on hand again! In a scramble to improvise I came up with some shallots to fill in. The recipe calls for 5 cups of marinara sauce. Not only did I not have it on hand, the recipe provided called for 1 hour of simmering - not the best option for a quick dinner. Enter the pressure cooker.

So now I've got pancetta with red pepper flakes and minced shallots on the go on one burner, a pot of boiling pasta on the go on another burner, a pressure cooker sautéing some ingredients for the marinara sauce on yet another, a few cutting boards soiled from their handywork, and a food processor doing additional chopping, mixing and grating to help along the whole thing. Not to mention a bowl for mixing the ricotta stuffing. It was kitchen mayhem.

Once you've got the pasta par-boiled, the cheese stuffing prepared, and the sauce ready you assemble. You stuff the shells with the cheese mixture, assemble in a pan and pour sauce over.I won't go into the details of the recipe as you can find them here on the Food Network site.

But I will tell you a bit about the pressure cooker sauce. I sautéed some carrots, shallot (wannabe garlic) and onions in olive oil until translucent. I then added finely chopped canned tomatoes. It turns out that the pancetta I had been preparing was actually for the marinara sauce (the ingredient that must transform the sauce from a mere marinara to arrabbiata sauce from the recipe title I guess) so instead of adding the marinara sauce to the pancetta as indicated in the recipe, I instead added the pancetta to the pressure cooker marinara. Clever, no? I then secured the pressure cooker lid, turned it to high pressure, and let cook for 15 minutes with additional cooking time as it depressurized on its own. Voila.

The end recipe was yummy. It's pretty hard to go wrong with cheese, tomato sauce, and pasta, but this was more posh than your average cheesy pasta (but not too posh).

"Eat Down the Fridge" - Turkey Curry Pasta

As the subtitle to my blog indicates, I've given myself provision to chat about "other food stuff" outside of pressure cooker and smoker cooker, and this is my first blog of that sort.

For those of you who know me, you know that my husband and I currently go between two cities as a result of work. As it turns out, when I'm not in our permanent location, I'm without the pressure cooker and the smoker. So it's a good thing I have the "other food stuff" provision, for times like this when I'm in Ottawa, Canada.

I was having a look at the Food and Think blog, and apparently there is a new challenge out there right now to "Eat Down the Fridge" from March 9 - 15. Even though its March 8th, I figured I should attempt this call to action given that I'm in Ottawa sans pressure cooker and smoker, haven't grocery shopped, and always enjoy a food challenge. Game on!

I actually had to go through my cupboards and fridge to reacquaint myself as I haven't been here for well over a month. It was then that I realized, that this really will be a challenge as I'm missing lots of basic food stuff (I don't even have a head of garlic on hand - yikes! Isn't that mandatory).

After some careful perusing of the cupboards and fridge, I decided on a turkey curry sauce that I used to make when I was in university. So this automatically tells you that this recipe is several years old, is suitable for the budget conscious, and may not be an authentic cuisine type of dish. But, as I remembered it, it was delicious.

I started with two sorry onions that were pushing past their prime. I normally wouldn't want to show this picture, but really wanted everyone to appreciate that I truly am eating down not only the fridge, but pantry, and cupboards and anything edible in view.

After scrapping the bad parts, I did have enough to meet the needs of this dish. I then chopped up some carrots that were in rough, but not nearly as rough shape.

I sautéed the onions in a bit of olive oil. Once they were translucent I add the carrots and some water. From there I added ground turkey and sautéed until it cooked through. Then I added curry, cumin, kosher salt, some heat in the form or red pepper flakes, and a can of Italian tomato paste. I stirred to mix through and let simmer. After tasting, it was good, but needed something more. I had my husband do a taste test and he thought more tomato would do the trick.

I didn't have more tomato, and I knew he meant that rich tomato flavour. Another visit to my pantry wielded a jar of sundried tomato pesto. Perfect. I knew it would add that extra kick.

The end result was surprisingly delicious. Even better than I remembered from my university days.


We served over whole wheat pasta. I'm not always a fan of whole wheat pasta (some things are just better with regular pasta), but this dish lends itself is the perfect complement.

Turkey Curry Pasta
1 onion chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 lb ground turkey
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 can tomato paste (small)
1/2 small jar sundried tomato pesto

Heat your pan with the olive oil. Saute the onion until translucent. Add the water and carrot and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the ground turkey and stir until cooked through. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix and let simmer, stirring frequently, for 15 - 30 minutes.