When you select the right ingredients, it doesn’t take many of them to create a fantastic dinner. Nor much time.
The trick is to pick ingredients with tons of flavor, then let them do the heavy lifting for you. This recipe for spicy sausage and arugula penne is a great example of this approach.
And the recipe is incredibly versatile. No sausage? Used ground beef, pork or turkey. Don’t care for sun-dried tomatoes? Use roasted red peppers. And baby spinach or broccoli would stand in for the arugula.
Spicy sausage and arugula penne
12 ounces penne pasta
1pound spicy Italian sausage meat
1large yellow onion, diced
1/2cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
15-ounce package arugula
1cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and ground black pepper
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente according to package directions. Reserve 1/4cup of the cooking water, then drain and set aside.
In a large saute pan over medium-high, brown the sausage meat and onion until cooked through, about 10 minutes. As it cooks, use a wooden spoon to break up the meat into bite-size chunks. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and arugula, then toss well. Add the pasta and toss until heated through and the arugula just begins to wilt.
Add half of the cheese and a splash of the reserved pasta cooking water. Toss well, adding more water if desired to create a sauce. Serve topped with the remaining cheese.
Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 490 calories; 190 calories from fat (39 percent of total calories); 22 g fat (7 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 70 mg cholesterol; 47 g carbohydrate; 28 g protein; 3 g fiber; 750 mg sodium.
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