Cajun Andouille Ragu. Cajun Week Day 4

Cajun Week Day 4!

It's Day 4 of Cajun Week with The Creole Contessa and Feed Your Soul Too. I must admit, I am starting to get full with all this great food Feed Your Soul Too and I have been cooking up this week. I guess I can make room for another dish, so I decided to cook up a nice big, hearty, pot of Cajun Andouille Ragu.

In case you're wondering what exactly is Cajun Ragu, I would describe it as a free for all dish. You can add whatever meats you want to this dish and it will be good.

Sometimes I add braised short ribs, oxtails or stewed beef. The key is browning the meat in olive oil and allowing the Ragu to cook all day, yes, all day... Today I went with fresh Andouille sausage, casing removed.

I sauteed my veggies in a little olive oil and butter, yes, butter...then I added the sausage and browned that up. Throw in some tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, hot tomato sauce and chicken broth. Season everything well and top this dish over your favorite pasta and enjoy!

I will give you one of my secrets, I served this dish with Pappardelle pasta, but for my bowl, I took some sour dough bread, topped it with the sauce and sprinkled some cheese on top....You talking about delicious....It's was like a kicked up Bruschetta...I must admit I ate half a loaf of bread just like this...hey, it's addictive, what can I say.

Look what Feed Your Soul Too, just cooked up!  Creole Pizza.  I needed to make Creole sauce for my Sunday night plans and I decided I would make extra and use it in a number of ways.  My family loves pizza – who doesn’t.  My son had requested a pizza so I checked with him if it would be OK if I put this Creole spin on this dish.  He said he was game.

Cajun Andouille Ragu 

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes, or All-Day...lol
Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 lbs andouille sausage, fresh, casing removed
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 c. chicken broth, low sodium
1 small can hot tomato sauce
2 stalks celery
2 shallots, chopped
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 stick butter
1/2 bunch of parsley, fresh
1 tbsp. creole seasoning
1 tbsp. oregano
1/2 tbsp. black pepper
1/2 tbsp. onion powder
1/2 tbsp. garlic powder
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
pasta
crusty bread
cheese to garnish

Directions:

Remove sausage from casing and set aside. In a large pot add butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add all the vegetables except, garlic and parsley. Saute vegetables for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute more. Add sausage mixture and all seasonings to veggie mixture and crumble meat with a spoon. Cook meat until nice and browned about 15 minutes. Add tomato paste to meat mixture and cook 5 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, hot tomato sauce and broth to mixture and mix well. Bring mixture to a boil, add parsley, then lower heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or more if desired. Serve with your favorite pasta and enjoy!