sausage + escarole {video}

I’ve been on a cleaning up rampage lately. Like a lot of people I know there is just too much stuff in my life. I’ve been living in the same house for over 25 years now, and the slow creep of accumulation has left its mark. The recent spate of tidiness was inspired by the fact that we’ve been doing renovations.  And while the beginning was just about cleaning out the space where my office used to be, I’ve since moved on to tackle all the nooks, crannies, closets and cupboards where I’ve managed to stash stuff away for over two decades.

I know I’m not alone. The times we live in encourage us to accumulate more than we can use. I know this because I’ve been reading up on the subject. On the one hand I’m reading Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I find her philosophy (which can be a bit draconian) equal parts inspiring and frightening. I want to get my space as clear and organized as she describes, but fear I will never get anywhere near.

At the other end of the spectrum I’ve been reading my friend Barry’s book Mess. I’ve known Barry for over ten years, and never knew he was a hoarder. That’s frightening. Maybe I’m a potential hoarder and don’t know it. (actually, I know I’m not, but suspect I may be married to one). In any case, Barry’s story also inspires me to deal with piles of stuff I’ve been avoiding for far too long.

And if you think it’s all books, magazines, and clothes, I of course have this problem with food as well. I always preach about how if you have a full pantry, you’re halfway to a recipe for dinner. But what happens when that pantry is so full you are scared to even open the door?

Which is how I ended up making Sausage and Escarole the other day for lunch.

It was Sunday and in my effort to avoid going to the gym, I decided to clean out the kitchen cupboards and fridge. I’d been avoiding this for quite a while so….well, needless to say, four hours later, and I never made it to the gym.

I did, however, manage to toss at least half the jars full of old spices (at least 30!). And my fridge is practically a condiment-free zone (I won’t ever tell you about the vintage mustards hiding in there).

Among the treasures I uncovered was a jar full of golden raisins, and a packet of pine nuts Gillian had given me (the result of her own freezer clean out the previous week).

And so I decided to use my massive head of escarole from our garden in Umbria to make a typically Italian dish, using pine nuts and raisins. 

But then I struck gold, unearthing  a pack of sausages was hiding in the back of the freezer.

Luckily I had even labeled the packet.(freezer surprises can be particularly mystifying)  ”4 sausages” seemed pretty self explanatory. But then I found the receipt tucked inside and realized that I’d gotten them at one of best butchers around. Yay!!

And so I decided to tweak the traditional escarole dish by adding the sausages.. It manages to be a bit of everything: salty and sweet, crunchy and fresh. I”m sure my mother would call it a cleaning out the fridge meal. But what is it called when you are trying to clean up your entire home?