Linguica-dilla with a Side of Summer

As a longtime New Englander, I've always had a heavy feeling for the change of seasons. It always seems like just when you are tired of one season, the switch hits. Until this winter of course. Day after day people had the same conversation about polar vortexes, when will it get warm, and are we really just living on set for The Day After Tomorrow. Luckily (unless you can't get enough Emmy Rossum) the winter has passed, and summer is here to stay a while.

With the changing weather we naturally start to crave different foods. Out go the slow roasted oven cooked meats and stews and in come the fresh cold veggies and grilled everything. As a relatively new resident of Brooklyn I'm still working out how I'll go about street side grilling without being one of these guys, but I'm staying hopeful. In the meantime, I made up a weird summertime snack that felt like a good transition from the cold winter to the brutally hot NYC summer.

Bean salads are something I've been a fan of ever since making one several years ago for a summertime BBQ. They're so simple but perfect with just about anything. You can really use just about anything here and it will workout great, depending on what kind of flavor you want. Fruits (A+ for mangoes) are great for some extra sweetness, tomatoes would give it more of a salsa feel, avocado gives you the creamy richness that only an avocado knows how. But for this, I wanted to focus more on the seasonings than the items involved. Red wine vinegar is the only liquid you need, and if you don't have this you can use rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or lime juice for a similar effect.

For those who are unfamiliar with linguica (pronounced lin-GWEE-sah) I can almost promise you will like it if you like any kind of sausage. It's similar to Chorizo, but a little different seasonings and usually less greasy (though not by much). Linguica is a Portuguese sausage that I have to give credit to my home town of Cape Cod for the introduction. You know, Cape Cod, where the beaches stretch for miles and the linguica run wild. Maybe not the last part, but a true Cape kid knows linguica as the sausage that can dominate a pizza or a bowl of Portuguese Kale soup. 

For the bean salad:

- 1 Green Pepper

- 1 Orange Pepper

- 1 can black beans

- 1/2 Red onion

- About the nail of your thumbs worth of fresh ginger

- 1 clove of garlic

- Pickled jalapenos if you got 'em

- A few sprigs of cilantro

- A few leaves of fresh mint

- 1/4 to 1/2 cup Red Wine vinegar

- Salt & Pepper, to taste

- Kimchi (optional, I like the extra funk)

 For the linguicadilla
- 1 package linguica sausage (about 12 oz.)
- Flour tortillas
- Shredded pepper jack cheese
- Your favorite brand of Mexican or Spanish seasoned rice



 1. Chop up your veggies and rinse beans for salad. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Mix in red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Cover this for about half hour and place in the fridge. When you take it out again, you will see your red onions are nice and pink and pickled.

 2. Chop up your linguica. Heat up some olive oil and saute these little circles of heaven. They will brown up and be good to go in less than 10 minutes. Once they're done, remove to a plate and let them hangout.

 3. Throw down your tortilla and cover with as much cheese as your heart contends. Once your tortilla is getting brown, add in some linguica and top off with rice. Close it up and you're good to chow down. You can add in some bean salad, or just have separate, they go really well together.