Pasta with Garlic Chicken Sausage!!

For tonight's dinner, we wanted to use up some of the al fresco chicken sausages we had. They were roasted garlic flavor, and not terribly exciting on their own. They're good, but you can't fool me into thinking it's a nice, thick, fatty, Italian sausage link. But for 7 grams of fat for "sausage," it's a sacrifice we're willing to make during the work week. Makes it all that more special to cook naughtily on the weekends! But let me tell you, in this pasta dish, flavor wasn't lost a bit. I also just love the cavatappi pasta. Little corkscrews make everything fun!

Basically I made up a primavera-esq pasta dish, using tomatoes, escarole (to beef up the nutrients), the chicken sausage, mushrooms, onion, and orange bell pepper. Super simple, and can be made with whatever your favorite veggies happen to be! And, but of course, you can't ever forget my second husband, parmigiano reggiano.

Enjoy!!! And make sure you make plenty. We both had two helpings!

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Time from start to finish: About 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 box Cavatappi Pasta, or whatever you have on hand
1-2 orange Bell Peppers, sliced
1 8-ounce container Baby Bella mushrooms, roughly chopped
3 cloves Garlic
2 15-ounce cans Diced Tomatoes
1 small Onion
3-4 links Chicken Sausage or whatever sausage you want, sliced on a bias
2-3 cups of Escarole, washed, dried, and roughly chopped
A ladle full or so of the starchy pasta water
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Butter or Margarine
Juice of 1/2 small Lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tbsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
Parmigiano Reggiano shavings

Prep all your veggies, and your garlic. Heat a large, high sided, skillet over medium heat, and put the butter and oil in. Put the pasta water on, cover while you wait for it to boil. Dump the sausage, onion, garlic, mushrooms, peppers in the skillet. Let cook for about 5 minutes, add the tomatoes (juice and all), the lemon juice, pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Once it boils, turn it down to medium-low. By now your pasta water should be boiling, add your pasta and cook per instructions on the box. when you have about 1-2 minutes left on your pasta, add a few ladles of the starchy water to your sauce and stir. Add your escarole after mixing in the salted water and toss for a minute or two until the escarole has wilted. Add your pasta, toss, and garnish with fresh basil and parmigiano reggiano.

Eat Well!
Melissa