This is an excellent supper for week nights. The only modification I made was to use fresh spinach versus frozen and added it to my colander prior to draining my pasta so that it cooked it slightly. This is a keeper.
In response to the previous poster who asked how the sausage should be prepared: my recommendation is to remove the casing- especially if you're serving it to kids. If you don't remove the casing, it could roll back while cooking the sausage pieces and you'll get the inevitable question from your kids, "What's this?" then "What's it made out of?" then "Ewww!" Best bet: use frozen sausages, thaw very lightly in the microwave, then use a sharp knife to cut membrane and remove.
This is my family's new favorite recipe! They request it all the time! I make it a little healthier using whole wheat pasta, low-sodium chicken broth, and spicy Italian turkey sausage. We actually like the turkey sausage better than regular sausage.
Absolutely wonderful recipe, quite elegant, extremely easy (I'm a novice) -- and restaurant quality taste! I used mild bulk sausage (did not add oil) and penne pasta. Not draining the sausage made me nervous, but the end result was light and extremely good. Even my teenage boys loved it, spinach and all! All I can say is, thank you for submitting this one. It is a keeper!
4 stars with the changes I made. I added red wine (1/2-1 cup and reduced it longer) then added heavy whipping cream until thick and creamy. I threw in canned asparagus tips and fresh spinach. Great meal!!
Wow, this was VERY good! I used a pint of fresh tomatoes versus canned and I used fresh spinach versus frozen. I think this did make a big difference in the over all taste but this recipe still gets 5 stars all the way. I also tried this with and without Parm Cheese and I can't believe as a major cheese lover that I am even typing this (putting hand over mouth) but I felt it was better with out the parmesan.
This is a great light pasta. With thin sauces like this, there are two things you can do to ensure the sauce still sticks to the pasta. First, fusilli is probably best to use with this (corkscrew shaped pasta). Second, don't cook your pasta first and then start on the sausage/veggie mixture. Do a little backwards planning, and after draining the water, don't waste any time with the pasta and get it mixed in with the sausage mixture. The pasta will be covered in starchy goodness that will help the sauce stick. I served this with some Focaccia bread that I also got from this site. Also, I suggest using fresh basil towards the end after the spinach is added. Dried basil simply doesn't do the fresh herb justice.
Unfortunately we weren't too impressed with this recipe. The sauce didn't reduce that much so the whole dish was soupy. All the flavors were great but we needed a bowl to eat it. Next time I won't add the juice from the tomatoes and cut back a bit on the broth.
We found it 'salt-less' and that it needed some salt. 1/2 tsp should be fine. All I can say is know your sausage and make sure it's hot or this dish will lack the zippy flavour that it could have.
