Pasta: With Red Sauce? Are you sure?

Here in my household we eat pasta. No. We eat a lot of pasta. You could probably say with confidence that in some variation, pasta is what we eat the most, at least once a week even!

My husband's all time favorite food happens to be spaghetti, so naturally we end up having this often. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good spaghetti too. But I'm not so much a fan of "red sauce" pastas as I am creams sauces. (Probably for obvious reasons, its cream!) Spaghetti is the only red sauce pasta that I make, and I'm OK with that.

Although, did you see my food storage? I have a million cans of red tomato spaghetti sauce. There has got to be another way to use this sauce without over exasperating the spaghetti dishes. 

So I asked a buddy at work (thanks Joe!) if he had any good recipes. He said some kind of fancy name, because he is Italian, but it basically means Red Sauce, Sausage, and Pasta. So here it is folks!

Red Sauce Sausage Pasta

6 cloves garlic, diced

1 stick butter

1 pound pork sausage (could be any kind you want, I just got some Jimmy Dean.)

1 large jar/can red spaghetti sauce

1 cup Parmesan cheese (powder stuff you shake on pizza)

1 bag, or 8 oz, (2 cups I think) grated mozzarella cheese

1 box hearty pasta, like Penna or Ziti

(These are all just approximations. When I cook I tend to not measure. So I just throw stuff in and adjust, give it a try! Its fun!)

Saute your garlic in the butter (yes the whole stick) in a large skillet. Then add the ground sausage and brown off. Add the spaghetti sauce and let it thicken up a bit. Add the Parmesan cheese and continue to cook and thicken on a lower temperature.

All the while, cook your pasta.

Then when the past is done, toss together the pasta and sauce. Then melt the Mozzarella over the top of it and ENJOY!

I really didn't think I would like it. But it was SO STINK'N GOOD! I always associate sausage with breakfast foods. So to have it in a dinner pasta sounded weird. On top of the fact that, remember, I don't care for red sauce all that much. (Same for on pizza, but that is a while other topic really.) 

This pasta has a richness and depth in its flavor. I highly recommend it, because it is not only yummy, but very easy to make. And you can make it any way you want! Put less butter in, put some mushrooms in, try a different kind of cheese, onions (don't put onions in it, bleh), whatever you want!

 No meal is complete without some good vegetables, garlic bread, and my husband's Darth Vadar cup! Happy eating!