Kortni’s Kitchen: Simple Pasta
I love pasta, I think I could eat it every day. I don’t even need sauce just a little butter and I am happy. I have been trying to cook simple dinners because by the time I get home from work I’m tired. The problem with that is I’m also hungry so instead of popping some ramen into the microwave I decided to do simple pasta.
Ingredients:
1/2 of a yellow onion diced
2 yellow squash cut into 1/2 moons
2 sausage (I used real breakfast sausage) cut into rounds
pasta enough for two
1 tsp of olive oil
Directions:
1. Dice the veggies and saute them together with the olive oil. You want the onion to be translucent but not browned. The squash should be able to stick a fork through nice and easy. If you have time you can cut the veggies a day in advance.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Simple Pasta
2. Cut the sausage and add them to the veggies. You want the sausage to have nice brown on it. By adding the sausage to the veggies it gives the onion time to caramelize. One thing that happens when you cut into a raw sausage the casing comes off some. That is fine, if you would like to take the whole casing off that works as well it just turns it into ground sausage. Make sure your sausage is fully cooked through before you toss it with your pasta.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Simple Pasta
3. While step two is cooking get a pot of water on to boil. Once the water is boiling add your pasta. Some people break their pasta in half so it is not as long that is fine. I prefer to have it long so I can twirl it on my fork. Either way works, make sure you add a dash of salt or a splash of olive oil. By adding one of these items it helps your pasta not to stick together. Once you add the pasta mix once or twice and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Once done strain and set aside.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Simple Pasta
- Some people believe if you take the cooked pasta out of the pot you can throw it on your kitchen wall and if it sticks then you know it is done. The reason why pasta is sticky enough to stick to the wall is do to the starches it releases when it is cooking. I have never done this, I simple just pull out a piece and eat it.
- Make sure after you drain your pasta you rinse it in water for a few seconds. This is to get off all that excess starch. Then just strain it one more time.
- If you are letting pasta sit for a long time and you notice after it cools it starts sticking together just toss it with a little bit (2 TBS) of the boiling water you cooked it in this will help the pasta not stick. You can also use olive oil but you have to be careful with that or to much will give it a distinct flavor.
4. Once all your ingredients are done take a spoon with holes and take the veggie and meat mixture and add to the pasta. You don’t want to just dump everything together because the sausage has some excess grease that you don’t want in your pasta. Add a little butter if you like, once everything is together lightly toss and you are done.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Simple Pasta
- Have you ever eaten pasta at a restaurant and they serve it with a spoon? Since I am Italian if I don’t get a spoon I always ask for one. The spoon is to help you twirl your pasta, you don’t want the pasta bigger than the spoon giving yourself perfect portion sizes in every bite. With this pasta or any that has large pieces make sure you get the larger pieces on the fork first then twirl on some pasta
I was able to cut all my veggies and even my sausage the night before which cut down on time. This meal took me about 15 minutes from start to finish. This is just a simple pasta that can replace any boxed or frozen dinner. Due to the great flavor the sausage gives off when cooking it gets absorbed into the veggies and the pasta doesn’t even need sauce. The best part about this is that it has some protein and veggies but is easy to make. It also doesn’t have any added preservatives like pre-made food. It is also easy to make in large batches. Pasta makes me so happy.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Simple Pasta
