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Pheasant Helper with Roasted Sun Sugar Tomato Sauce

Growing up, mom cooked a lot of Hamburger Helper. It was quick, it was easy, and it was cheap. When you're feeding a bunch of picky kids, it's something everyone would eat. I remember always going back for seconds and thirds, and still not getting enough. Admittedly, I haven't had Hamburger Helper in the past 10 - 15 years, but if you sat it down in front of me today, I promise you I'd eat every bit of it. Cheeseburger Macaroni and Beef Stroganoff were the absolute best. It's not fine dining, I know, but give me some Hamburger Helper and a slice of crusty bread ... and I'd be one happy camper. For this recipe, I wanted to pay homage to that classic Hamburger Helper, single pot type meal. This is what I came up with Pheasant Helper with Roasted Sun Sugar Tomato Sauce.



The next few recipes I'll post will all involve produce collected from my garden this year. I planted a much bigger garden this year than I normally would. Lots of sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, kale, cabbage, radishes, squash, green beans, pumpkins, and watermelon. I was doing a pretty good job of keep the grass out of the garden until I hurt my back one morning using the hoe. Barely able to walk, the grass eventually took over. I was able to harvest a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, kale, squash, and corn ... but the rest of it didn't fare so well.



I was looking for way to use some of my garden produce I had harvested. I had planted a bunch of Brandywine and San Marzano Tomatoes this year, but I had one of each of those plants die early on. My dad purchased several Sun Sugar Orange Cherry Tomatoes from the Amish down the road and ended up giving me a couple of those plants. Those two little plants have really shown out, I've gotten buckets of little orange tomatoes off them. I could walk out there today and easily harvest another bucket load of them. I've had so many of them and hated for any of them to go to waste, that I've literally been inventing different things to do with them. What I decided to do for this recipe was to use a bunch of these little tomatoes to make a sauce. They are so tiny that it really takes a bunch of them to get any amount of sauce. I took a couple sheet pans full of these tiny tomatoes, hit them with some Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper, then roasted them in the oven. Once they were blistered, I pureed them in the blender, with some garlic and basil to make a bright orange tomato sauce. The color might have been off putting, but it sure was tasty. You can just use regular tomato sauce, if you don't want to mess with making your own.

Ingredients

Roasted Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato Sauce

Pheasant Helper

Instructions

Roasted Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato Sauce

Step #1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take two large baking sheets and sprinkle them with a little water. Cut some parchment paper to fit, the water will help hold the parchment paper in place. Rinse cherry tomatoes, dry paper towel, then add to baking sheets. Quarter up a large onion then divide the pieces between the two baking sheets. Drizzle onions and tomatoes with Olive oil, then sprinkle with Salt and Pepper. Use your hands to mix together, ensuring everything is coated. Once oven is hot, place both baking sheets in oven.

Step #2 Allow to cook for 20-30 minutes before removing from oven.

Step #3 Take cooked tomatoes, juices and all, and add to food processor. Add a couple cloves a garlic, Italian seasoning and Basil leaves, then puree into a sauce. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if needed.

Pheasant Helper

Step #1 Add two slices of bacon to the deep skillet with about a half tablespoon of oil. Everything will be made in this one skillet, so it needs to be large enough to hold everything. While bacon is cooking cut up your garlic.

Step #2 Remove bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. Drain excess bacon grease, leaving about one tablespoon of grease in skillet. Add ground pheasant, season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat.

Step #3 When pheasant starts to brown, add in minced garlic and cooking one more minute.

Step #4 Add in tablespoon of favorite hot sauce

Step #5 Add in roasted tomato sauce

Step #6 Pour in Pheasant stock and some red pepper flakes

Step #7 Add macaroni

Step #8 Add more salt, black pepper and Italian seasoning. Turn up heat and allow to reach a simmer.

Step #9 Once it reaches a simmer, reduce heat and cover. Cook for 4 minutes, then remove lid. Cook for an additional 4 minutes without lid.

Step #10 Turn off heat. Top with crunchy bacon.

Step #11 Pour in heavy cream, using spatula to combine.

Step #12 Top with a generous amount of Parmesan Cheese.

Step #13 Finish it off with some chopped parsley and more red pepper flakes.

Step #14 Then serve with some crusty bread.

Recipe Card

Pheasant Helper with Roasted Sun Sugar Tomato Sauce

Written by Jeff Davis Visit : Visit authors website

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Prep Time: 30 min - Cook Time: 50 min

Ingredients

Roasted Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato Sauce

4 cup(s) Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato

1 Sweet Onion

2 clove(s) Garlic

Basil Leaves

Olive oil

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

Pheasant Helper

1 lbs Ground Pheasant

1 tbsp Hot Sauce

1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

2 slices Bacon

3 cup(s) Pheasant Stock

4 clove(s) Garlic

2 cup(s) Roasted Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato Sauce

1/2 cup(s) Heavy Cream

2 cup(s) Elbow Macaroni

1/2 tbsp Italian Seasoning

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh Parsley

Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

Roasted Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato Sauce

Step #1 - Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take two large baking sheets and sprinkle them with a little water. Cut some parchment paper to fit, the water will help hold the parchment paper in place. Rinse cherry tomatoes, dry paper towel, then add to baking sheets. Quarter up a large onion then divide the pieces between the two baking sheets. Drizzle onions and tomatoes with Olive oil, then sprinkle with Salt and Pepper. Use your hands to mix together, ensuring everything is coated. Once oven is hot, place both baking sheets in oven.

Step #2 - Allow to cook for 20-30 minutes before removing from oven.

Step #3 - Take cooked tomatoes, juices and all, and add to food processor. Add a couple cloves a garlic, Italian seasoning and Basil leaves, then puree into a sauce. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if needed.

Pheasant Helper

Step #1 - Add two slices of bacon to the deep skillet with about a half tablespoon of oil. Everything will be made in this one skillet, so it needs to be large enough to hold everything. While bacon is cooking cut up your garlic.

Step #2 - Remove bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. Drain excess bacon grease, leaving about one tablespoon of grease in skillet. Add ground pheasant, season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat.

Step #3 - When pheasant starts to brown, add in minced garlic and cooking one more minute.

Step #4 - Add in tablespoon of favorite hot sauce

Step #5 - Add in roasted tomato sauce

Step #6 - Pour in Pheasant stock and some red pepper flakes

Step #7 - Add macaroni

Step #8 - Add more salt, black pepper and Italian seasoning. Turn up heat and allow to reach a simmer.

Step #9 - Once it reaches a simmer, reduce heat and cover. Cook for 4 minutes, then remove lid. Cook for an additional 4 minutes without lid.

Step #10 - Turn off heat. Top with crunchy bacon.

Step #11 - Pour in heavy cream, using spatula to combine.

Step #12 - Top with a generous amount of Parmesan Cheese.

Step #13 - Finish it off with some chopped parsley and more red pepper flakes.

Step #14 - Then serve with some crusty bread.

About the Author

Jeff Davis

You may think cooking and recipes don’t have much to do with a website dedicated to hunting dogs ... but really, why do we hunt? Sure, we enjoy watching our dogs work in the field and being outdoors, but ultimately, hunting is about survival and feeding our families. We might as well try to do it well. I'm not a chef and definitely no food authority ... but I do like to eat and enjoy cooking. After searching for people willing to share their recipes on Gundog Central, without much success, I decided to try to do a few on my own, with my wife Tami's help. The recipes I share here are things I like to eat and have made here at home. I've tried to include step-by-step instructions with each meal describing exactly how I did it, but my method may not be best, if you decide to try a recipe posted here, please use whatever technique you think works best, I'm simply sharing how I did it. You'll see a lot of recipes where I've tried to make things from starch, when I could have just used store bought ingredients, simply because I wanted to learn how something was done. My goal is to continually update these recipes as I learn new things and techniques. These are my attempts at creating good, home cooked food, that I would like to eat! If I'm sharing it here, my family and I enjoyed it and I believe you will too.