Pinterest Win: Spicy Sausage Pasta

One of the greatest parts of meal planning this year has been the recipes we've discovered to be our new regulars. This one is absolutely one of them!

To be honest, this may now be one of my favorite recipes of all time. The variable levels of spice (depending on the level of heat in the Rotel you use) just make this perfect for anyone, really. Looking at the picture now makes me drool!

I found the recipe on pinterest linking to the website Kevin & Amanda, which they found in This cookbook.

The recipe link can be found here: recipe link

But as usual, I'm always nervous that one day someone will clean house and take away the recipe, so I want to have it here just in case!

The only changes I made to the recipe was to use penne pasta simply because I didn't have campanelle noodles (but really, you can use whatever you want to) and I used regular smoked sausage instead of turkey sausage.

I'm not going to do a step-by-step here, because Kevin & Amanda do it SOOOOOOOOO much better (so check them out...seriously), but I will list the basic recipe here for future reference :)

Spicy Sausage Pasta

4 servings
Recipe from: kevinandamanda.com

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb smoked sausage
1.5 cups diced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 (10 oz) can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chiles, Mild
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz penne pasta
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper, each
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1/3 cup thinly sliced scallions

1. Add olive oil to an oven-safe skillet over medium high heat until just smoking. Add sausage and onions and cook until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

2. Add broth, tomatoes, cream, pasta, salt and pepper and stir. Bring to a boil, cover skillet, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until pasta is tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove skillet from heat and stir in 1/2 cup cheese. Top with remaining cheese and sprinkle with scallions. Broil until cheese is melted, spotty brown, and bubbly.

Manicotti

I've made Manicotti exactly once in my life, and I'm not entirely sure why it was just this once. I think partly, I'm just not overly fond of cheese mixed with my pasta (unless it's Parmesan, in which case: more, please!) It was actually very delicious, and I have fond memories of it from my childhood. But overall, when I think of Manicotti, I think of it being time-consuming, and I don't love it enough to spend this much time on it regularly.

I don't recall exactly where I found the recipe, but it was very similar to this one off the Food Network website. (The difference being instead of using marinara sauce, I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste)

It seems simple enough: boil the manicotti noodles:

Sautee the sausage with some fresh pressed garlic and diced onion:


Shred up some cheese:

Yes, a BIG mound of cheese :)

Add the seasonings to the meat while it's browning:

Then add in the tomatoes and tomato paste:


Chop up some fresh basil and add it to the skillet:


Then, you mix ALL this cheese (and an egg) together and use it as a filling for those shells. (This is the part where I said it gets VERY time-consuming...and the shells kept breaking on me.



You then place all the stuffed shells in a baking pan and cover with that meaty tomatoey sauce...

...and then you add a bunch of shredded mozzarella. You then bake that Manicotti for about 30 minutes or until the cheese on top gets melty and delicious!


As far as manicotti goes, it was very tasty, and if someone else spent the time making it, I'd definitely eat it again. I just felt like it was too much work for something I'm not THAT crazy about.