Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge...magazines, cuttings and pullouts!

When Dom over at Belleau Kitchen announced the theme of this month's challenge I practically leapt off my chair and dumped out the basket of clippings I have waiting waiting waiting to be tried.  I love picking up those freebie magazines and leaflets at the supermarket...but more often than not they tend to lay in a pile by the sofa...collecting dust...until I feel the need for something different...and then I dust them off...and every once in a while I actually go through and cut out rip out things that might be tempting...

The thing is...my mom lovingly does the same thing...FOR ME! She's been sending me photocopies and torn out recipes for years now...so the pile grows and grows.  And so...as I dumped out the basket and randomly selected my meal for the challenge...I also selectively chose 10 more recipes to fill out the rest of my two week shop...

This Sausage and Mushroom Penne Gratin recipe comes from a photocopy of Gourmet Magazine from November 2008, sent to me by my mum.  The heading reads....Gourmet Everyday Ten-Minute Mains...I'll tell you now...it wasn't 10 mins...heck it wasn't even the 30 mins "start to finish"...and not really gourmet...but it tasted good!!  

While you cook the penne you brown some sausages (pork with caramelised onions for us...also a meat meal to satisfy my dad) sort of breaking them up as you go along...to that you add sliced mushrooms (I used a 250g pack of white mushrooms...I think that the whole point is to use ready sliced...but you know me and chopping...) and cook those until the mushrooms are golden.  To the sausage mushroom mix you add 1 cup of double cream and some salt and pepper and let it bubble away until thick...then toss in the drained pasta, a little bit of the cooking water, 1/2 a cup of grated parmesan (I used hard goats cheese...don't tell my dad) and 1/2 a ball of mozzarella torn up into little pieces.  Mix it all up so that the sauce coasts the pasta and then tip it into a baking dish and top with the rest of the mozzarella and some parmesan (or...hard goats cheese).  That goes under the grill until bubbly and golden...

Some of the other clipping meals I'll be trying over the next week include...Carrot Lentil Soup from a recipe scribbled on a piece of kitchen roll...Minestrone of Broad Beans from what looks like maybe River Cafe Green (hand written on a piece of notepaper)...Baked Eggs with Ham and Cheese from no idea...Spinach Pie copied out of Donna Hay's Instant Cook....and Baked White fish from Delia's How to Cheat.

And so...as always...thanks Dom for the inspiration!