Last Sunday evening, I went to the store hungry. I had spent most of the day working on last week’s post Peanut Butter S’mores Dip and my people were ready for some relatively healthy food for dinner. 
Sausage stuffed with tomato, basil, and mozzarella to the rescue!
Normally my weekly food shopping includes a trip to our local warehouse store (where I stock up on essentials like greens, toilet paper and wine) as well as multiple trips to the supermarket.
Last Sunday, my first stop was the warehouse store. In my state of hunger, I was easily distracted by the section of stuffed chicken sausages . I thought “Hmmm… I could toss this browned sausage with the spinach I’ve already got in the cart and throw it over pasta I already have at home. No trip to the supermarket required for dinner tonight!” Yes, that is exactly how it happened. You can call it lazy or creative; either way, it was a win. I had one less stop to make and knew dinner would be on the table less than half an hour after I got home.
I knew I would like it because I like virtually anything with 
copious amounts
of garlic, basil and sausage.
We had all three offspring at the house for that dinner last Sunday and they all loved it too. So, they were happy to have it again this Sunday so I could take pictures of it for you.
Without further delay, here is the recipe for 
Happy and Yummy’s Fresh Spinach and Pasta Toss.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 16 oz spinach (large clamshell)
- 40+20 turns on Fresh Market Herbed Salt Grinder
- 1 - 1.25 lb chicken sausage with mozzarella and basil
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 T minced garlic, divided
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- dash crushed red pepper (optional)
- 1 box Barilla Plus or other protein rich pasta
- Asiago Cheese, grated
Instructions
- Cut sausage into 1/2" chunks (or 1/2" circles cut in half)
- Place in frying pan on medium high heat with 1 1/2 T garlic
- Turn on water to boil; cook pasta according to package directions.
- Place 1/4 c olive oil in small frying pan over medium low heat. Add two shakes of crushed red pepper and 1/2 T minced garlic.
- Cook slowly until garlic is lightly browned; remove from heat.
- Brown sausage for approximately 10 minutes until cooked most of the way
- Add half of spinach to sausage pan and top with 40 turns of Fresh Market Herbed Salt Grinder; reduce heat to medium low and cover; cook for 5 minutes.
- Stir sausage and garlic to combine with wilted spinach; separate any large bunches of spinach. Add remaining spinach, top with 20 turns from Herbed Salt Grinder, as well as basil and parsley. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
- Stir to combine wilted spinach with sausage and garlic mixture in pan. Separate large clumps of spinach. Turn heat to low.
- Drain pasta and dump into sausage pan; pour olive oil with browned garlic on top of pasta. Toss to combine.
- Top with freshly grated Asiago cheese and serve immediately.
Comments are closed.