Penne with Sausage and Seasonal Vegetables
The thing about veggies that are in season is that they are - get this - incredibly delicious! Tossing them with pasta makes for a quick and easy sauce while showcasing their bright flavours…
Serves: 2 (or 1…with leftovers for lunch the next day).
Time: 15 minutes…but if you suck at cutting vegetables, 20 minutes. I’ve done this in a record 12 minutes.
Prep ahead: None
Level of Difficulty: I can fry an egg
Cooking Method: Oven
Ingredient Rundown: Penne, sausage, veggies, oil, S&P, H&S, cheese, water
From the market:
2 fresh italian pork or turkey sausage**
2 cups fresh vegetable of choice (whatever is fresh and available…zucchini in 1/8″ half-moon slices, mushrooms halved, any colour bell peppers cut in chewing gum size strips, rapini trimmed to 1 inch leaves/stems)
1 wedge of hard sharp cheese…pecorino romano, parmiggiano reggiano, asiago. whatever you love.
From your pantry:
2 cups penne pasta (if you’re not good at eyeballing, use a measuring cup!)
1/2 small cooking onion diced
1 clove garlic
1 tsp dry herbs or 1 tbsp fresh herbs - whatever you have on hand. thyme, oregano, basil works well. so does a handful of parsley.
2 dashes (tablespoon) of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Equipment:
1 large pot with lid
1 large (approx 12″ diameter) saute pan
1. Boil water for pasta … here’s a trick: fill an electric kettle (most hold 1.5L) with water and get it going, as well as a large 4L pot 1/3 full of water on HI heat to boil. Add boiling kettle water to pot water and bring to vigourous boil. To that, add a tbsp of salt, and drop in 2 cups of penne. Set timer to 8 minutes, and don’t cover pot! remember to stir occasionally.
2. Now you have 8 minutes to get your pasta dressing ready. Heat a large pan over med-high heat with 1 tbsp olive oil.
3. Cut fresh sausage diagonally into 1/2″ pieces. if it’s ooey gooey and bent out of shape, don’t worry. free form is cool. Add sausage to the pan to brown (don’t muck around with it, let it brown on each side for 1 minute so it has a chance to develop colour).
4. While sausage is browning, dice onion and add to pan. Bring heat down to medium. Stir occassionally to prevent onion from burning. Onion should be translucent after 1 minute.
5. Meanwhile, cut up whatever veggies you have and toss into pan - the key is to keep the pieces in consistent sizes so it cooks at the same time. Roughly chop garlic and toss in with veggies as well. Season with salt and pepper to taste (taste it! sausage can be salty already). Saute (yes, you are sauteing! high five!) veg for about 2-3 minutes to keep crisp.
6. At this point, your pasta should be hitting the 8 minute mark and slightly less than al dente (just a little hard). Strain pasta into the pan. Depending on how wet your veggies are, you may want to add another 3-5 tablespoons of pasta water to keep the pasta from getting too dry.
7. Toss pasta with dressing and add herbs. When the excess liquid has been absorbed by the pasta/reduced to a pan sauce, add another tablespoon of olive oil to taste. then taste it to see if you need to add more salt. remember, if you add cheese, that’s salty too!
8. Throw it all on a big pasta plate and grate as much cheese as you want over it!
**if you buy sausages that come in a foam tray, they usually come in a package of 4-6. freeze what you can’t use, or cook the rest to use for recipe below:
