I’m not very organized when it comes to meal planning. I plan, buy the few things I need to fill in any gaps in my pantry, and even assign a meal to each day, but as good as my intentions are each week, when it comes down to dinner time, more often than not, I’m scrambling to come up with something quick and tasty. I simply forget to get the meat out of the freezer or wait to long to start making dinner. Sure, there are times of the year (winter and that’s about it) that I do much better, but harvest season isn’t one of them.
This year, I’ve been more dependent on quick and easy, farm-fresh meals than ever and we’ve been enjoying Tomato Gravy and Biscuits nearly every week. They are absolutely amazing with Homemade Sausage Patties, but… *sniff*, *sniff*, we’ve run out of ground pork!!
This means no more sausage until December and I have a feeling it’s going to be a long couple months when you factor in the absence of bacon from our freezers as well. We were all grumbling last night that if it wasn’t for the Butchering Workshop we are hosting in a couple months that we might be far too tempted to take advantage of the first cold snap that comes and harvest our pork before the hogs have fully grown, which is the reason we’re in this pickle in the first place. (Our pigs would not respect the electric fencing last year and I spent far too many HOURS each day coaxing them back in. One day we were fed up enough, called it, and planned the butchering for the following week…. flexibility. That is a good reason to learn to butcher your own meat.)
We’ll still enjoy Tomato Gravy over Buttermilk Biscuits sans Sausage Patties for the next couple weeks till frost snatches the rest of the tomatoes growing on the vine and love every bite, but the sausage does make a more special meal.
Bill actually created the sausage recipe this summer built on the foundation of our typical breakfast sausage to give it an extra kick.
(Pardon the interruption , but can I just say that it’s a really good idea just to freeze your ground pork instead of making all of the sausage? That way you can get complete customization of what sausage you’ll eat throughout the year. That way you won’t have too many breakfast sausages and not enough Italian sausages -or whatever you prefer- before the next time you have fresh pork. Plus the seasonings will be fresher and more delicious that way.)
And then he fries it in lard. Which some (me in particular) would say is a key ingredient, though technically you could use whatever fat your prefer. Trust me, all pork cooked in it’s own fat I believe you will find to be far superior to anything else you cook it in. And thankfully, lard is a healthy fat and one of the ways that you can fully respect and appreciate the life the pig gave to feed you and use the whole beast.
To make the fresh tomato puree, I simply fill a quart sized mason jar with cherry tomatoes (or tomatoes chopped so that they will fit) and use my favorite, trusty stick blender to puree. By the time they liquify, you’ll have closer to half of the jar filled. It takes like 2 minutes to make the puree, not much longer than finding your can opener and opening up canned puree, only the fresh will taste infinitely superior. Promise.
All told I can have this meal on the table in about 30 minutes…
Form the patties; warm the skillet- 5 minutes
Mix the biscuit dough and cut the biscuits while the oven is preheating- 7 minutes
Prepare the vegetables- 4 minutes, but I’m pretty quick with dicing onions…
Put the biscuits in the oven and fry the patties while you make the gravy- 12 minutes
And you can’t beat that. Sometimes the simple meals are simply the best.
Tomato Gravy over Buttermilk Biscuits with Homemade Sausage Patties
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Tomato Gravy over Buttermilk Biscuits with Homemade Sausage Patties
- Yield: 6 -7 Servings 1x
Ingredients
- Buttermilk Biscuits, half recipe
- Sausage Patties
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sage
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ⅛–¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste
- couple tablespoons lard, or oil
- Tomato Gravy
- ¼ cup onion, diced
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cup fresh tomato puree
- 1 cups chicken stock
- 2 Tablespoons whole milk
- 2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 475.
- Sprinkle all of the seasonings over the ground pork in a bowl and mix it together well, but don’t over work it though so the meat doesn’t get tough.
- Gently, yet firmly shape them into patties.
- Prepare and bake the biscuits according to the directions.
- Warm the lard over medium high heat in a skillet.
- Add the patties to the skillet and cover it with a lid.
- Cook them for about 3-5 minutes until they are well browned, flip, and repeat on the other side until they are cooked through. Total cooking time depends on how big and thick you make your patties.
- Tomato Gravy
- Saute the onion in the butter over medium-low heat for about 5-8 minutes until caramelized.
- Add in the garlic and continue to cook for another minute.
- Whisk in the flour and salt and cook it for a minute.
- Whisk in the fresh tomato puree and chicken stock and simmer the gravy until it has thickened, about 4-5 minutes.
- Stir in the milk and parmesan cheese and then season with salt and pepper.
- Serve over the Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage.
Enjoy!
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