At its core, cooking isn’t complicated. It’s about well designed process and awareness of what ingredients can do. That’s especially true for these simple, 6-Ingredient Italian recipes. Get my favorite cookware from Made In today with a 10% off discount on your first order over $100 using my link – https://madein.cc/0424-brian
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*Cheesy Baked Polenta with Rustic Tomato Sauce*
300g (2c) polenta
1200g (1 1/4c) chicken stock
7g (1 1/2t) salt
115g (1 stick) butter
100g (3/4c) grated Parmesan, plus extra for topping
Olive oil
40g (10-12 cloves) sliced garlic
1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, pureed
1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, medium diced
Salt
10g (2 1/2t) sugar
1. In a high-sided non-stick saucepan, toast polenta over high for 3-4 mins, stirring frequently until it smells like popcorn.
2. Whisk in stock & salt (7g) to the toasted polenta, bring to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes until tender.
3. Stir in the butter until melted, then add parmesan,, stirring until fully incorporated.
4. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Transfer the cheesy polenta into a buttered baking dish, top with additional grated Parmesan cheese, and bake for 25 minutes.
5. While that cooks, prepare the tomato sauce. In a saucepan, heat about 1/4c olive oil over medium heat and add sliced garlic. Cook for 2 minutes until fragrant and slightly softened.
6. Add pureed and diced tomatoes from the cans. Bring to a simmer and reduce for 20 minutes.
7. Season the sauce with a pinch salt and sugar.
8. Once the polenta is baked, let it set for 20 minutes before serving. Cut into squares and top with the prepared tomato sauce.
9. Garnish with additional parmesan, and a drizzle of olive oil
*Linguine and Clams*
300g/10.5oz linguine
Olive oil
30g (6-8 cloves) sliced garlic
2g (1t) chili flakes
300g (1 1/4c) dry white wine
2 (185g) cans cooked clams
Fresh parsley, chopped
115g (1 stick) butter
Salt
1. Cook linguine in a pot of well salted boiling water until al dente, about 7-8 minutes. Reserve some pasta water and drain the linguine.
2.In a large non-stick pan, heat olive oil and sauté sliced garlic over medium heat for 2 minutes until softened. Add chili flakes and fry for another minute.
3. Add wine, simmer until reduced by half.
4. Strain the clam juice from the cans of cooked clams (2 cans, 185g each) into the pan (reserve clam meat for later). Simmer for 2 minutes to reduce liquid by half.
5. Add the cooked linguine to the pan along with reserved clams, chopped parsley, and butter. Toss well to coat the pasta in the sauce.
6. Serve and top with additional parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.
*Braised Chicken Cacciatore*
4-6 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
250g (2sm) onion, sliced
300g (1 orange & 1 red), orange and red bell peppers, sliced
40g (10-12 cloves) sliced garlic
3g (1t) chili flakes
125g (2c) Castelvetrano olives, halved
1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, pureed
1. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
2. In a large, deep skillet with lid, heat a few Tbsp olive oil over med high, sear chicken thighs skin-side down for 5 mins until browned. Remove from pan, set aside.
3. In the same skillet, add olive oil then sliced onion, peppers , garlic, & chili flakes. saute 5-8 min over medium heat until softened and beginning to take on color.
4. Add halved Castelvetrano olives and pureed whole peeled tomatoes to the skillet. Stir and bring to a simmer.
5. When simmering, return the seared chicken thighs to the skillet, nestling them into the sauce. Cover and braise in a preheated 325°F (165°C) oven for 45 minutes.
6. Serve chicken over stewed peppers, onions, and olives.
*Italian Sausage and Rapini Pasta*
150g (about ½ a large bunch) chopped rapini
225g (2 2/3c) orecchiette pasta
Olive oil
225g (1/2lb) Italian sausage
Salt and pepper
115g (1 stick) butter
40g (1/3c) grated Parmesan cheese
Red chili flakes
1. Chop rapini into 1” pieces, then blanch in well salted boiling water for 30 seconds. Scoop into paper towel lined bowl and set aside.
2. Cook orecchiette pasta according to package instructions. Drain, reserving some pasta water.
3. In a large non-stick pan over medium-high, heat olive oil and cook Italian sausage until browned and crumbled.
4. Add blanched rapini back into the pan and sauté for a minute.
5. Pour in about a cup of pasta water and add drained, cooked orecchiette to the pan. Stir in butter and toss until melted and emulsified.
6. Off the heat, add grated Parm, toss to combine.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Cheesy baked polenta with rustic tomato sauce
3:25 Linguine and clams
6:46 Chicken cacciatore
8:49 Italian sausage and rapini pasta
41 Comments
Get my favorite cookware from Made In today with a 10% off discount on your first order over $100 using my link – https://madein.cc/0424-brian
Can you also use grits and replace the polenta which almost like the same thing and actually I am from the south so great and kind of confusing
RIP that one crumb of sausage at 10:00
When you say Italian, do you mean Italian-American ?
If so, why ?
You've upped my polenta game!
Prolapse me Daddy
Can't wait to prolapse
Brian "Prolapse" Lagerstrom strikes again!
I wondered why my Polenta always tasted two dimensional. Next time I'll try toasting it first. Don't know why that never occurred to me. After all, l do that with rice…
The pasta type recipes here are great for quick weeknight meals. I developed similar recipes based on a single pan and pot. Pasta veggies protein spices in a combo with a simple sauce wine water stock cheese and you're done. I can get it down to 20 min usually. Home from work, tired and hungry these were the dinner solution. Bravo Brian.
Idk about italian Bubba…looks ok though.
All of these are winners but that polenta is simply divine.
damn dude that pasta looks absolutely prolapsing
I’m going to make all of these today but I can’t bring myself to use all that butter!!! I’m sure they will still taste great!!!
These are the exact four I go through when I feel like making Italian.
Lol at 11:25, didn't think even spicy italian sausage was blow-your-ass-out hot but idk how they do it in St. Louis
Bri, HELP, I prolapsed my whole family!
It is weird to add oranges to the dish 😂😂😂
Is there a good replacement for the clams? I'm allergic to shell fish. You really should add alternatives for us unlucky types.
The best quick and easy pasta dish I ever had was <your favorite pasta type> in a radicchio and cream sauce. The bitterness (and color) from the radicchio goes so well – i prefer orechiette.
I’ve lost my recipe for what I call “Pasta One-A,” I started calling it that because it was so tasty I made it nonstop when I first discovered it. It’s sort of similar to the clam pasta method..it involves getting some brown color on rather thickly sliced and plenty of mushrooms, your choice of types, and cooking them with plenty of garlic, olive oil, butter, and maybe shallots or onions, then cooking through again with plenty of nice Sauvignon Blanc and fresh sliced basil, to serve add chopped parsley and whatever other herbs you’d like although if you use plenty of fragrant basil it’s perfect as is and a generous amount of Parmesan or my favorite, pecorino Romano. Getting color on the shrooms gives fabulous flavor, the thicker slice gives bite and allows better browning (too thin you liquify the shrooms and they just break up) and also they absorb all the butter, oil, herb and wine flavors much better when thick.. Balance the amounts of wine, butter, oil, onion/garlic and reduce to get saucy goodness..I guess Basil/Mushroom/Sauvignon Blanc pasta would work as a name..
Dude. Brian. You've given me recipes for enough meals in one video to cover the entire next week for my fam. I freaking love you man! 🙏🏾🤙🏾
I just tried your sloppy mes and they were amazing. I can’t wait to make these
“Hope you learned something new…” yeah, some people learned what prolapse means. 😂😂😂
Hi Brian!
Great recipes… although I can tell that you still have that "person in their 30's" metabolism…
These dishes look ohh so delicious!
Ahem…. it's "Lin-Gwhine"
I ain't eating that last one until I know it definitely won't prolapse me
We all know some angry 🇮🇹traditionalists will cry but your recipes look legit ! I’ll try the polenta recipe nnNice job Brian.
The last dish is a real "earth blaster" (said with a Japanese accent) search it! LOL
i really appreciate you saying WHY we should not use the pre-diced canned tomatoes. I was just thinking how cutting the whole ones seemed like so much work but then you mentioned the calcium chloride. Dinner might take a few more minutes but it’ll be worth it!
Even cardboardini with trashbag juice would be good with those amounts of butter added in 😂
Hey Brian, recipie request for you. Do you think you could do something leafy greens focused? I've been trying to eat more but there's only so many ways you can do sauteed kale before it becomes boring.
Step 1: acquire friends and / or girlfriend to cook for
I like your videos and I follow your channel, but please don’t call these Italian dishes cause they are not! Maybe call them “Italian-inspired”
Gracias ❤
Olive oil in non-stick? Isn't that a no go?
Hi Bri thanks for these recipes my fave is the polenta …it was like a 1000 percent upgrade of corn bread i will def make it as a side for my roasted chicken dinner.. corn meal in my country is used for dessert not as meal or sides.. 😋😋😋😋😍😍😍😍🙏🙏🙏🙏
+1 for the clarification on what counts as "ingredients." Keeping some pantry items (especially spices) is not easy for me, so they count as ingredients because mine tend to go bad before I can reuse them.
Hi Bri! Why not start the pasta pot on the left side of your stove and save the movement? Is there a specific reason you start it on the right?