Mediterranean Sausage Pasta

Mediterranean Sausage Pasta

You will need:

1 package of sweet Italian sausage, 6 small links or 3 large butcher-style links
1 box of pasta, farfalle, penne or fettucini is good
1/2 large Spanish onion, sliced
3 large cloves of garlic, sliced
1 T chopped fresh rosemary
1 T dried or fresh oregano
1 T red pepper flakes
1 small container sliced mushrooms (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup (or so) chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 T prepared pesto
1 cup grated parmesan
3 T chopped fresh parsley

I'm not going to go into details assuming you know to season during the cooking process and you have salt, pepper and olive oil on hand.



Start the pasta water. In another pot, cook the sausage until about 75% done and set aside. Remove any remaining oil/fat from the pot. I like to use a paper towel, then add fresh olive oil.



First add the onion and saute for a minute or so, then slide the onion over, add more oil and the mushrooms. You want to keep the pot fairly wet with oil to develop the pasta sauce. so if it seems like alot, it's really not once you plate the pasta.



After 2 more minutes you can add the garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano and rosemary.



Meanwhile, slice the sausage on the bias and add it to the pot along with any juices it left on the cutting board. Cover and reduce the heat to medium low.

By this time your water should be boiling and you can start the pasta.

The sausage will release even more fat while it finishes cooking. After 3-4 minutes you can add the frozen peas, sun dried tomatoes and about 2 table spoons of the oil the tomatoes were packed in. You can see the sauce developing in the pan at this point.



I add the pasta straight from the water using a spider. Add the pesto and stir. Once everything is coated you can the cheese and 2 tablespoons of the parsley.



When you plate, top with more cheese and garnish with a pinch of parsley and some good finishing oil. We like Greek olive oil for that.

Ahhhhh, perfect, HC! I've just thawed a package of sausages that I wasn't sure what to do with!

Do you slice your sausages before browning or after? I'm always undecided about which way to do them.

Lee

I brown them first, then slice them.

This looks really good HC!

That does look good. I love sun dried tomatoes, and that looks like the perfect combo.

That looks delicious, thanks for recipe and the great pictures!

For those of you who would like to copy and paste the whole recipe (as I would), I've copied all the directions into a Word doc to save.

Here it is.

Lee

Mediterranean Sausage Pasta (High Cheese)

You will need:

1 package of sweet Italian sausage, 6 small links or 3 large butcher-style links
1 box of pasta, farfalle, penne or fettucini is good
1/2 large Spanish onion, sliced
3 large cloves of garlic, sliced
1 T chopped fresh rosemary
1 T dried or fresh oregano
1 T red pepper flakes
1 small container sliced mushrooms (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup (or so) chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 T prepared pesto
1 cup grated parmesan
3 T chopped fresh parsley

Start the pasta water. In another pot, cook the sausage until about 75% done and set aside. Remove any remaining oil/fat from the pot. I like to use a paper towel, then add fresh olive oil.

First add the onion and saute for a minute or so, then slide the onion over, add more oil and the mushrooms. You want to keep the pot fairly wet with oil to develop the pasta sauce. so if it seems like alot, it's really not once you plate the pasta.

After 2 more minutes you can add the garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano and rosemary.

Meanwhile, slice the sausage on the bias and add it to the pot along with any juices it left on the cutting board. Cover and reduce the heat to medium low.

By this time your water should be boiling and you can start the pasta.

The sausage will release even more fat while it finishes cooking. After 3-4 minutes you can add the frozen peas, sun dried tomatoes and about 2 table spoons of the oil the tomatoes were packed in. You can see the sauce developing in the pan at this point.

I add the pasta straight from the water using a spider. Add the pesto and stir. Once everything is coated you can the cheese and 2 tablespoons of the parsley.

When you plate, top with more cheese and garnish with a pinch of parsley and some good finishing oil. We like Greek olive oil for that.

That was nice of you. Lee.

Thank you.

A thing of beauty. Taking out sausage from my freezer for tomorrow.

I made this with Italian chicken sausage, whole wheat pasta and omitted the sun-dried tomatoes. DEE-licious!

As I was tasting it, though, I definitely wanted the flavor of eggplant - cubed, sauteed, and browned. Next time, I'll add that in.

I loved the added little splash of good olive oil and sprinkle of parm cheese at the end!

A keeper, HC!

Lee

That looks so good!

Any leftovers?

Wow you guys! Both of your dishes look awesome!

Thanks for putting the recipe in word doc form, Lee!!!

How did I miss this? YUMMY!! Both versions look awesome.

nice recipe and pics, jeeks!

and wtg, qsis.

not bad for a coupla sawx fans.

buckytom said:

nice recipe and pics, jeeks!

and wtg, qsis.

not bad for a coupla sawx fans.

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Hey good morning Buck!! LOL

Very nice, thanks for sharing! Think I may give it a go, but with a bit more robust of a noodle, like a pappardelle, or a rigatoni.

UncleRalph said:

Very nice, thanks for sharing! Think I may give it a go, but with a bit more robust of a noodle, like a pappardelle, or a rigatoni.

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Yes, that would be more appropriate. I was just trying to use up some of the boxes of linguine I have. Wholesale stores.....gotta love 'em.

Wow! Both dishes look amazing! I have all these ingredients in the house so maybe I'll make this tonight. Screw the pizza! LOL

QSis said:

I made this with Italian chicken sausage, whole wheat pasta and omitted the sun-dried tomatoes. DEE-licious!

As I was tasting it, though, I definitely wanted the flavor of eggplant - cubed, sauteed, and browned. Next time, I'll add that in.

I loved the added little splash of good olive oil and sprinkle of parm cheese at the end!

A keeper, HC!

Lee

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Looks great! Do you not like sun dried tomatoes? They add a nice contrast to the rest of the dish while you're eating it. You can also make Tomato Confit in place of sun dried.

I like how you get all the different flavors like the pesto, then sausage, then tomato, etc. It's a quick cook so it doesn't combine into one flavor.

Glad you made it, post some pics with the eggplant!

HC, I've TRIED to like sun-dried tomatoes, since they are the rage, but ... I just don't.

I thought of putting in some halved cherry tomatoes, but didn't want to mess up the pesto-ness of the dish.

The confit is a good idea. I've loved the looks of that since you posted it!

Lee

I used to dislike SDT up until a couple years ago. I only recently started using them. You'll like the confit better since they don't have that deep flavor SDT's have. I get the ones packed in oil, I think they taste alot better than the dried ones. But a small jar cost 5$ and change.

QSis said:

HC, I've TRIED to like sun-dried tomatoes, since they are the rage, but ... I just don't.

I thought of putting in some halved cherry tomatoes, but didn't want to mess up the pesto-ness of the dish.

The confit is a good idea. I've loved the looks of that since you posted it!

Lee

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I like to sub roasted red peppers for sun-dried tomatoes. We eat bruschetta with pesto topped with chopped tomatoes all summer - I think the sweetness of the tomatoes or roasted red peppers goes beautifully with the pesto.