Currywurst Sauce Recipe

Commonly in Germany this sauce is served as a topping on pork sausage or French fries. You could use it like you use ketchup and it is essentially a seasoned ketchup.

Sausage covered in Currywurst with Fries

I made this sauce for the first time recently and served it on President's Choice Oktoberfest and Bratwurst sausages, and it went very well.  It would also go well on Knackwurst or Wieners.  This type of sauce has its own museum in Berlin and it is estimated Germans eat 800 million Currywursts a year  It takes about 40 minutes to make this sauce and you will have enough for more than a dozen sausages. 

Currywurst Museum in Berlin

Currywurst Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
	1 Large Sweet or Yellow Onion, finely chopped
	2 TBSP Canola Oil
	1 TBSP Curry Powder
	1 TBSP Hot Paprika
	400ml Canned Crush Tomatoes (half a can)
	1/2 Cup Sugar
	1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
	1/2 TSP Salt
Steps:
	1) Heat canola in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until soft, about 10 minutes.  Stir fairly often to prevent burning.
	2) Add curry powder, paprika and cook for 1 minute more, stirring constantly.
	3) Pour in tomatoes, red wine vinegar, salt, and bring to a boil.  Stirring occasionally.
	4) Reduce heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Sauce will become thickened.

Note: This recipe can be made hours ahead and reheated.  It keeps well in the fridge for a week.

Ingredients for Currywurst Sauce

Step 1: Frying the Onions with the Ingredients Measur

Step 3: Bringing Currywurst Sauce to a Boil

Currywurst Sauce Thickened and Ready to Serve

What I learned making this sauce:

• That sometimes I get too hungry and forget to take a picture of the final product to share.  This is the second time I have done that.  I got the first two images off of Google.

Spicy Bucatini with Bacon Recipe

This is a tasty recipe that I have modified for the "servant-less" kitchen and the fact that pancetta costs 4 times more than the tastiest of meats known as bacon.  Like Homer, I'm amazed that bacon, ham and pork all come from one magical animal.  This recipe is perfect for any Pastafarian:

Spicy Bucatini with Bacon

This recipe makes two dinner size portions as a main entree or 4 portions as a side.  I'd suggest serving this with a glass of Chianti and a great starter prior to this is my White Cannelini Bean soup.  This recipe takes about 45 minutes to make and is best served immediately.  You can roast the tomatoes and bacon earlier in the day if necessary.  

Spicy Bucatini with Bacon
Ingredients:
	2 Cups Cherry/Grape Tomatoes halved
	2 TBSP Olive Oil
	1 Pinch Pepper
	4 Strips of Sodium Reduced Bacon
	2 Cloves Garlic minced
	1/2 TSP Hot Pepper Flakes
	6 Kalamata Olives, pitted and Coarsely Chopped
	6oz (170grams) Bucatini Pasta
	2 TSBP Coarsely Chopped Fresh Basil
	1 TBSP Grated Parmesan Cheese
Steps:
	1) Pre-Heat oven to 325 Degrees.
	2) In a small bowl, toss together tomatoes, olive oil and pinch of pepper.
	3) Place tomatoes cut side up on foil lined baking sheet (or non-stick) and bake tomatoes for 25 minutes until shriveled and starting to brown.
	4) Meanwhile, boil a large pot of salted water and add pasta approx 10 minutes before tomatoes are expected to be ready.
	5) In a non-stick fry pan, cook bacon over medium high heat until crisp about 6 minutes.  Remove bacon and set aside.
	6) Drain excess bacon grease.  Add garlic, black olives and chili flakes.  Cook for 2 minutes until fragrant.
	7) Combine fry pan with drained pasta, and roast tomatoes.  Toss in basil.
	8) Split pasta on two dishes.  Sprinkle with bacon and Parmesan cheese.

Substitutions:

• The original recipe calls for 3 oz of pancetta diced.  Bacon works fine and cost 1/4 of the price.  Pancetta is salted and smoked pork belly.  
• You can add another 1/4 tsp of chili flakes if you prefer the dish hot rather than a medium spice.
• I tried this recipe with Penne once and it worked.  But, I would use Bucatini or Tagliatelle as my second choice.  Bucatini I have found both at Longo's and Loblaws, but prior to this recipe I never had it before.

Ingredients for Spicy Bucatini with Bacon

Step 2 - Getting Tomatoes ready to Roast 

Step 2 and 5 - Frying the Bacon and Tomatoes Ready to go in the Oven

Measuring the amount of Bucatini Pasta Required

Step 6 - Frying Chili Flakes, Black Olives and Minced Garlic.

Step 7 - Finishing the Pasta

Step 8 - Pasta plated and served.

What I learned:

• Pasta need not have a tomato or cream sauce.  Roasted vegetables and other toppings can beautifully punctuate pasta.
• Olives taste best packed in oil and out of jar.  Canned olives have a tinny taste and a different texture.  Further, olives in a jar taste better if you pit them yourself, rather than get pre-sliced.  Oxo sells for reasonable price a cherry and olive pitter that is dishwasher friendly.
• A kitchen scale is great for measuring quantities by weight (grams, ounces and lbs.) Make sure it has a tare function.