Fresh Tomato Sausage and Pecorino Pasta

Fresh Tomato Sausage and Pecorino Pasta recipe
Cooking Light, September 2009
We had this tonight for dinner. Now, I don’t know what I was on when I created the shopping list. I guess I thought we had enough Parmesan cheese to make this recipe. No, I had not intended on making this with pecorino. I wanted to use the parm we had in the fridge. Yeah, we didn’t have any. I wound up using goat cheese. Yeah, goat cheese. It made the sauce creamy and was really tasty!!
We ran out of onions. I have no idea how that happened, but we did. So, not only did I not have a hard cheese, I didn’t have onions either. This is not a very good review of this recipe as the dish I made probably didn’t come close to tasting like this one did and I will have to try it again when I have all the ingredients.
The basil I bought last weekend didn’t last to this weekend, so there was hardly any basil in it at all. I didn’t have quite enough penne so I used part of a box of gemelli. *snort* I did have Italian sausage. Granted it was turkey sausage, but sausage none the less.
With all that in mind…this was really easy. It was pretty tasty considering what I substituted. I will make this again. Probably in a couple of weeks.
Measuring cups and spoons
Knife
Cutting board
Large nonstick skillet
Saucepan

Fresh Tomato Sausage and Pecorino Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound whole wheat penne
- 1 pound Italian chicken sausage (spicy or hot!)
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup onion, vertically sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 pounds tomatoes, chopped
- 6 tablespoons pecorino romano cheese, divided
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
- 1⁄4 cup fresh basil (torn)
- crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to direction, omitting fat and salt. Drain.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Remove casings from sausage. Add oil to pan and add sausage and onions (and crushed red peppers, if using). Cook for 4 minutes, stirring to crumble sausage. Add garlic, cook 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes; cook 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat; stir in pasta, 2 tablespoons cheese, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and basil.
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 512Total Fat 19gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 10gCholesterol 112mgSodium 1012mgCarbohydrates 50gFiber 8gSugar 10gProtein 39g