This is one of my husband’s favorite dishes. I wasn’t sure I could make a recipe post about it because it’s really just combining a couple of ingredients together but it is definitely delicious. And bonus! My picky eater kids actually sampled this when I made it this time! The only downside of this recipe is that it does create more dirty dishes than I usually like to make. My husband does do the dishes when I cook and his first vote for naming this blog was “deliciously dirty dishes” but we decided that name could be taken the wrong way…. So, my apologies to all out there having to clean up after this meal.

The star of this dish is the sausage. I buy sweet Italian ground pork sausage when available. Turkey sausage works fine. Prefer spicy sausage? Go for it! If you can only find sausage in links, just remove the casing and then proceed with the rest of the recipe. Cut the sausage into bite size pieces. If you want to make the dish look better, you can roll them into balls.

Prep the veggies – slice a pepper and onion. Thinly slice two cloves of garlic and put one with the veggies and the other in a small saucepan with the butter. Wash and dry the parsley, then cut it up using kitchen scissors.

There are three main pans used to make this recipe.

1. Pot to boil water and cook pasta
2. Small pot to make garlic butter sauce
3. Large pan to saute sausage & pepper

Fill the large pot with water and start to boil. Add the butter, garlic (slices from 1 clove), and half of the parsley to the small pot to simmer. Be careful to not brown the butter too much… a little brown -ok, burnt -not ok. You can add a splash of dry wine to this butter sauce or some lemon zest to change up the flavor profile and cut down the richness of the sauce.

In the large pan, heat olive oil. When hot, add in the sausage chunks. Brown the sausage on all sides -a few minutes per side should do. Add in the pepper, onion, and garlic (slices from the other clove). Cook until peppers & onions are softened and sausage is cooked through. Near the end, add in the spinach and let cook down.

When water has boiled, add pasta to pot and cook based on package instructions. A semi-hardy pasta is needed to hold up to the rest of the dish. We usually use Rotini or Penne and have found that Barilla Gluten Free pasta to be the best substitute for the real stuff. When pasta is done, drain and then add to the butter sauce. Finally, add everything to the pan with the sausage and mix it all up.

Sausage & Pepper Pasta

Ready in 30 minutes

Serves 2 people (with large appetites)

Ingredients

• 1 lbs Ground Sausage (Mild Italian Sausage)
• 8 oz pasta (half a box) Rotini or Penne
• 1 red pepper; sliced
• 1 yellow onion; sliced and quartered
• 2 garlic cloves; sliced
• spinach; a few handfuls
• handful of parsley; washed, dried, and cut up
• 1/4 cup butter
• Olive Oil

Preparation

1. Slice sausage into bite sized pieces
2. Slide pepper, onion, garlic, and parsley
3. Fill a large pot with water and start to boil. When water is boiling, add pasta and cook based on package instructions.
4. Add the butter, garlic (slices from 1 clove), and half of the parsley to the small pot to simmer.
5. Heat olive oil in large pan. When hot, add sausage. Brown on all sides.
6. Add pepper, onion, and garlic to pan with sausage. Cook until softened and sausage is cooked through (no longer pink inside).
7. Add spinach to pan and cook down.
8. When pasta is ready, drain and add to butter sauce.
9. Add pasta in butter sauce to sausage pan and mix it all up.
10. Enjoy!

Tips

• Use whatever type of sausage you like but if using sausage in links, remove from casing before chopping up.
• If you want the sauce to be less rich, add some wine (2 tbsp) to the butter sauce or some lemon juice & zest.