Oh man, I have to write something. I am pretty stressed out, you guys.

However, we have vegetables. LOTS OF VEGETABLES. They are delicious. I will totally eat a vegetable every once and again.

Up there we have a nice plate of messy messy deliciousness that John made me a bit ago. So messy and so delicious. We had totally just gotten our first head of fresh serious garlic from the farmer's market. It was all over that business. Oh man. I wish I had some right now.

Besides garlic, the star here was SUMMER FREAKING SAUSAGE. I know! But said summer sausage--or is it beef salami? I threw out the wrapper, but it's from the severely local Larchmont Charcuterie--is so gorgeous and perfect that I have been using it not only for occasional big awesome sandwiches but also in cooking. Yes! Oh! I had totally been looking for a tiny whole salami or summer sausage to bring home with me for ages, before we even moved out of CA, since the Saag's sausages disappeared suddenly from the Milk Pail. AND LO. This one appeared out of nowhere, with far better textured and flavored meat and a lower proportion of fat than Saag's ever had.

Delicious mess of vegetable and sausage

olive oil
garlic
decent whole salami/summer sausage (or a drop of smoke seasoning, maybe?)
good summer tomatoes
good summer zucchini/summer squash
mushrooms
dry vermouth
salt, pepper
did we even put any basil in here?

Ok! Essentially we're going to make a big vegetable ragout thing with a little bit of rendered chopped meat. You could make a pot of rice or something to serve it on, or you could do what I did and just eat a whole huge plate full of mess. Either will work fine. Good?

Get a pan medium hot and add in some olive oil. Smash and chop several cloves of garlic, maybe four; I like a lot, but our garlic was so fresh that we really didn't need all that much. Cut maybe an inch of sausage off the whole, then dice into small bits.

Throw the sausage into the pan and cook a few minutes, letting any available fat render off. The time here will depend on the fattiness of said sausage; ours had very little fat, so it only took minute or two to permeate the oil. Then add the garlic and cook another few minutes. While those cook, core and chop a couple of good tomatoes. The proportion here is pretty much up to you; I really don't know how many we used, since John made this, not me. Two sounds good.

Throw your tomatoes into the pan, raise the heat to medium-high, and cook to reduce, stirring occasionally. I find that tomatoes can take ten or even fifteen minutes to reduce. If things start to stick at any point, deglaze with a little water or dry vermouth, then keep cooking.

While that's cooking, trim and dice some zucchini or squash. I think we used one of each, or maybe one and a half total. Also bust out some mushrooms and chop them roughly. Five or six mushrooms? I don't know. It's all good.

When the tomatoes are reasonably reduced, toss in your mushrooms, give them a little salt, and let them express their juices for a minute or two. Then add the zucchini, along with a shot or so of vermouth; it should sizzle. Stir the business together and let cook for maybe three minutes, or until the zucchini is just cooked. Whip it off the heat, salt and pepper as needed, and serve.

If you want some basil, rip it up and throw it all over your plate. Or you could stir it into the pan to wilt a little before serving. It's all good.

Eat it eat it!

FOOD. Now I really want some.