Bama Baked Wings recipe offers healthy option to football favorite

Wings and football are a classic combination, but healthful game-day food often doesn't make the cut. Here's a recipe for hot wings that will satisfy hungry fans and take a little bit of the calorie and fat sting out of enjoying deep fried wings. Named "Bama Baked Wings" for the University of Alabama football team, these wings are good enough for SEC fans — who boast being the most passionate college football followers in the nation. That means fans here in Illinois will also be impressed, no matter what college or pro tem they root for.

Instead of using Frank's brand hot sauce for northern-style Buffalo wings, this recipe calls for Louisiana brand hot sauce ... even though The Crimson Tide and LSU don't play nice together on the field! Louisiana brand is easy to find in Aurora-area grocery stores. Also listed is a recipe for blue cheese dressing that won't be as bad for your diet as store-bought stuff in a jar.

Bama Baked Wings Recipe

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 6 pounds of fresh chicken wings, cut into drum and wing parts
• 1 c flour
• 1 egg beaten with 2/3 cup of water
• 2 T. Seasoned Salt or Creole Seasoning
• canola cooking spray
• 2 sticks of butter (can substitute light butter)
• 3 T. red wine vinegar
• 3/4 c. Louisiana brand hot sauce (can use less for milder wings)

For the blue cheese dressing, mix together everything but the veggies. Refrigerate until the wings are ready to serve.

• 1 cup Light Sour Cream
• 1 cup Olive Oil Mayo
• 1 tub of blue cheese crumbles (can also use light blue cheese crumbles)
• garlic salt and pepper to taste
• 2 T. milk
• dash of red wine vinegar
• cut celery and carrot into sticks for snacking

Directions: Cut the wings so they are separated into drum and wing sections. If using frozen wings, make sure they are defrosted overnight before baking. Cover 2 hotel pans or baking sheets with foil — you may need three pans depending on how large they are. Spray the foil with canola cooking spray. Mix the flour and seasoned salt in a bowl. Dip the wings in the egg wash and then bread them in the flour mixture. Spread the wings out evenly on the baking sheets. Lightly spray the top of the wings with canola spray. Bake in a 425-degree oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings after the 20 minutes and set timer for another 10. In a saucepan, melt the two sticks of butter. Add the hot sauce and 3 T. of vinegar. Stir until blended. Take the wings out of the oven and brush them on one side with the hot sauce mixture using a pastry or grilling brush. Return to the oven again for 10-15 minutes or until they seem done.

Brush on extra sauce if desired before serving. Set out blue cheese dressing, carrot and veggie stick alongside the wings.

Best place to shop for sausage in Aurora is the century-old Wurst Kitchen

If you love grilling brats, sausages and just about any other kind of encased or smoked meats, your best bet is to visit the Wurst Kitchen Sausage Co. in Aurora. In business in the Fox Valley for more than 115 years, the Wurst Kitchen started out making handmade and all-natural smoked and processed meats, largely serving the area's German community. Today the shop carries on the tradition of producing handmade sausages and meats, creating more than 80 different varieties throughout the year.
Polish sausage, bratwurst and veal bratwurst are just a few of the great choices for shoppers visiting Wurst Kitchen. More unusual flavors include Pizza, Taco, Tequila & Lime and Cherry Bomb bratwurst. At any given time the shop carries 40 varieties. A package of four large size brats or sausages are priced around $8. A list of offerings can be found here.

Located at the corner of Union and 2nd Street on Aurora's east side, the shop shows that it has strong roots. This location happens to be the original. For those who live further west of Aurora, Wurst Kitchen also operates an outlet and restaurant in downtown Plano (12 W. Main St.). A recent Saturday afternoon the Plano restaurant boasted a pig roast on premises. Catering options are available, and hunters will also find that Wurst Kitchen can process game like venison or foul. Contact the store for more details.

Pasta with White Wine, Sausage & Tomato Sauce

Skip the jarred pasta sauce and hamburger combo. This recipe for spaghetti rigati with a tomato-sausage and white wine sauce bursts with flavor that's much better than the old grocery store standard.

The key is using good Italian sausage such as the freshly made offerings you find at Aurora's Prisco's Fine Foods. The best type for this recipe is the bulk Italian sausage made without fennel. Many specialty stores like Prisco's offer the option to buy the sausage with or without fennel.

Another essential ingredient to this recipe is using high-quality tomatoes, even though it calls for jarred or canned varieties. San Marzano tomatoes are readily available at the grocery store, even though you may have to look past many domestic offerings to find them. They are imported from Italy and have the most flavor of the canned tomatoes you will find. Spaghetti Rigati is the best for this recipe because the sauce clings to the tiny ridges on each strand. Barilla offers a version that is easy to find at most stores.

Here is the recipe for Spaghetti Rigati with Sausage Red Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage (preferably without fennel)
• 1 jar of pureed San Marzano Tomatoes 700 g (or equivalent canned crushed tomatoes)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup white wine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 leaves of fresh basil (or dried basil to taste)
• 1 pound box of Barilla Spaghetti Rigati
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Combine white wine with the sausage in a medium size bowl and work the wine into the sausage with your hands. This helps break up the sausage and give it a nice texture for the sauce, as well as add flavor. Add it to a hot pan and cook the sausage until nearly browned. Use a paper towel to dab up any extra grease from the sausage that you may not want in the sauce. Leaving some fat in the pan is good for the flavor. Add the olive oil and chopped garlic and cook just a couple of minutes more until the garlic is golden. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Add the 700g jar of pureed tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, prepare the pasta and make sure it a nice al dente texture. Rinse all the tomatoes out of the jar with a little bit of the cooking pasta water and add to the sauce. Near the end of the simmering process, add the chopped basil leaves. More or less can be used to taste. When the pasta is cooked, add part of the sauce to the pasta in the pan. Stir over medium heat to coat the pasta and influse flavor. Serve with dollops of extra sauce and grated cheese.