A Good 'Ol Pasta Dinner

I live at home so my mom does a lot of the cooking during the week since I get home pretty late in the evening from work. Even though this heat is unbearable, we needed something to eat for Monday lunch at work so I decided to make some pasta. Through the Cooking Light website, there is another option called "my recipes," which is a search engine for recipes. You can type in what ingrediatens you have and it will find recipes with those items. I like to use what we have in the fridge so we won't have to throw stuff out. In the search engine, I entered pasta, mozzarella, zucchini and found "Penne Rigate with Spicy Sausage and Zucchini in Tomato Cream Sauce." Now that's a mouth full for a recipe, right?! With a glass of vino, there is nothing like a pasta dinner (in my case pasta lunch at work, with no vino)!

Here are your ingredients:

8oz uncooked penne rigate pasta*

6oz hot turkey Italian sausage, casings removed**

12oz zucchini, quarted lengthwise and cut into 1/2 in. slices

1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced

Dash of sugar

2 tbsp. red wine vinegar

1 (28oz) can no-salt-added whole tomatoes

2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream***

Cooking spray

3oz part-skin mozzarella, shredded and divided (about 3/4 cup)

1oz Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated and divded (about 1/4 cup)

* I used whole wheat bow-tie pasta (didn't have enough penne)

** I used Hillshire Farm Turkey Smoked Sausage

*** I didn't have any at home so I skipped this (and the calories!)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; set aside.

2.Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage to pan, and sauté for 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble (you can't really crumble the sausage I used so I just cut it into little pieces). Using a slotted spoon, remove sausage from pan. Wipe drippings from pan with a paper towel.

3. Add zucchini to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Add oregano and next 4 ingredients (through sugar); sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add vinegar; cook for 30 seconds or until the liquid evaporates. Drain tomatoes in a sieve over a bowl, reserving 1 cup tomato liquid. Crush tomatoes with hands, and add to zucchini mixture. Add reserved 1 cup tomato liquid; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove pan from heat; stir in cream. Add pasta and sausage to tomato mixture; stir to combine.

4. Spoon half of pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch glass or ceramic baking dish, or divide half evenly among 4 individual dishes coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle 1 ounce mozzarella and 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano over pasta. Top with remaining pasta mixture; sprinkle evenly with remaining 2 ounces mozzarella and remaining 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

ENJOY with some garlic bread and red wine!

Recipe courtesy of  Deb Wise, Cooking Light, October 2012

Made and Prepared by Edit Issagholian