I have to admit that I love creating dishes! Now, that didn’t use to be the case, because I wasn’t always so confident experimenting while cooking. Of course, that really isn’t a surprise because, for most of my adult life, I didn’t do much cooking. I suspect this is true for a lot of single adults still. I relied mostly on frozen dinners and takeout for my meals. It was all primarily convenience food. I actually started cooking more during my marriage after I discovered real food and how healing and tasty it could be. But now that I’m single again, I didn’t want to lose that connection with real food….and I am proof that you can downsize recipes and enjoy cooking for one!
This spinach sausage pasta was a dish that ended up being a happy surprise. I love purchasing my meat from local farmers who raise beef, turkey, chicken, and pork naturally. Recently I purchased some chicken Italian sausage but was looking for a creative way to use it. I really just threw a few things together and this dish was the result. It was so incredibly tasty that I was shocked!
It’s also very easy to make, which is always a plus! With the use of brown rice pasta, this dish is gluten-free!
Spinach Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken or pork sausage
- 3/4 pound of brown rice penne pasta
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 can (14.5 oz) organic diced tomatoes, no salt added-do not drain
- 1 10 oz. package organic frozen, chopped spinach
- 4 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Prepare the pasta as directed on the package, drain, cover and set aside.
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and sausage, until the sausage is no longer pink.
- Once sausage is no longer pink, add the onion, mushroom and garlic to skillet and allow to cook until the onion is translucent.
- Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, basil, sea salt and black pepper.
- Cook uncovered over medium heat for 5-10 minutes to reduce the amount of liquid.
- Add chopped spinach.
- Cover and simmer until the spinach is tender and mixture is heated through.
- Add the drained pasta and mix thoroughly.
- Sprinkle with cheese and serve.
