To me, it conjures images of chicken & dumplings, fried chicken and porcupine meatballs. My wife, on the other hand, thinks of spaghetti and meatballs and stuffed cabbage.
Home cooked comfort food.
This past week I was listening to a couple of folks in the office compare their fideos (vermicelli) recipes. I’m quite familiar with fideos (soup), as it is a staple of many of the people whom I live among. But little did I know about this different version they were speaking of.
‘Dry’ fideos is made similarly to that rice/vermicelli dish with the San Francisco theme, or the boxed pasta dish with a personified glove as the mascot. It’s different though because there are hundreds of versions, depending on your family’s taste buds — or Abuela’s. And yes, it’s a very popular home-cooked comfort food.
This is a satisfying meal or side, depending on whether you choose to include meat. Either way, it might just become the official comfort food of the Jimmy Rockford. Hopefully, you’ll find some comfort in this dish as well.
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Skillet Fideos w/ Smoked Sausage
Skillet Fideos w/ Smoked Sausage — Delicious weeknight comfort food
- 1 - 7 oz. pkg fideos -or- vermicelli broken into 2-inch pieces
- ½ lb. - Smoked sausage, sliced in ½-inch chunks
- 3 cups - Beef stock
- ½ cup - Fresh or frozen corn
- ½ cup - Fresh or frozen English peas
- 1 - Small onion, chopped
- 1 - Garlic clove, minced
- 2 TB - Tomato paste
- 2 TB - Fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 tsp - Cumin
- 2 tsp - Chile powder, preferably Ancho
- In a large skillet, cook sausage and onion until they are browned around edges, and sausage has rendered most of its fat, about 10 minutes.
- Remove sausage and onions and set aside. You'll need about 2 TB of fat to brown the pasta; remove any excess and discard, otherwise add vegetable oil if necessary.
- In the same skillet, add pasta. Cook, stirring regularly, until lightly browned - about 5 minutes.
- Raise heat slightly and add stock, corn, peas, garlic, tomato paste, cilantro and cumin to skillet and stir gently.
- Add sausage and onions back to skillet; stir to combine.
- Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is al dente and most of the liquid is absorbed (see photo). The remainder of liquid will disappear between the kitchen and the table.