Gemelli with Spicy Sausage and Spinach

I had a super busy weekend and didn't get a chance to blog.  This was Friday night's dinner.  Saturday I took a break and we had QDoba and Sunday we went to a BBQ for my Mom's group.  I've felt like a slacker for not blogging all weekend.  I'll feel better after this post since I'll be all caught up.  :)

Gemelli with Spicy Sausage and Spinach is hands down my favorite pasta dish.  That's saying a lot.  I love pasta and I make ton of different pasta dishes.  While I like, sometimes really like, my pasta dishes, I love this one.

What's gemelli you're asking? Why it's a type of pasta, in fact it's this pasta:

It took me awhile to find this pasta.  I finally found it at Costco in a variety pack of  3 different pastas.  The shape works great for this dish, if you can't find gemelli you can use small penne instead.

Good ol' Woman's Day magazine gave me this recipe.  Here's the link to the original recipe and below is how I make it.  The only change I make is to add more chicken broth and heavy cream.  I like the dish to have more sauce to help the leftovers not dry out when they're reheated.

One quick note, please use spicy sausage (I didn't say hot, just spicy) this dish tastes so much better with spicy sausage.  I tired it once with Italian sausage (not spicy) and it wasn't nearly as good.

"Don't forget me!  You'll be sorry if you do!"

Gemelli with Spicy Sausage and Spinach

Prep time 5 mins

Cook time 20 mins

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 lb gemelli pasta
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 lb spicy Italian sausages, casings removed
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 bags (5 to 6 oz each) baby spinach
Grated Parmesan

1. Bring a 5- to 6-qt pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta; cook as package directs.

2. Meanwhile,  heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; saute 2 minutes or until just beginning to brown.

3. Add sausage and cook, crumbling with a spoon, until browned, about 10 minutes.

4. Add chicken broth, stirring to dissolve any browned bits. Stir in cream and nutmeg; simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat.
5. Place spinach in colander; drain pasta over the spinach (spinach will wilt).
6. Return pasta and spinach to pot; add sausage mixture.  Stir well.
7. Serve with grated Parmesan.

I love the trick of wilting the spinach with the pasta and pasta water.  It always amazes me how much spinach wilts.

Please excuse the foggy effect from the steam.

Best pasta EVER.

We're having brats (bratwurst), hot dogs, french fries and peas for dinner tonight.  I'm not really making anything so I'm not sure what I'll be blogging about.  Maybe a tip, maybe a favorite tool, maybe I'll just forget.  Who knows!  What I do know is that you need to make this pasta dish very, very soon!

Fettuccine with Spinach Pesto

So I said I was going to blog about something fun and exciting for Monday night.  Yeah well I completely forgot about blogging-- sorry! :)

I did cook tonight though.  This is one of my favorite pasta dishes.  Everyone in my family loves it, plus it sneaks spinach into Carter.  Eli will eat almost anything, Carter is a little pickier, so this is perfect for him.

As always, here's the link to the original recipe and here's how I make it.

The goods

Fettuccine with Spinach Pesto
Prep time 25 mins
Total time 25 mins
Serves 4

1 Package fettuccine

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

2 tablespoons pine nuts, plus more for serving

2-3 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon grated zest plus 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup cold water

1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, drain pasta, and return to pot.

2. While pasta is cooking, place spinach, Parmesan, nuts, garlic, and lemon zest and juice in a food processor. Process until a paste forms. With motor running, add oil and cold water; process until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Add to pasta; toss, adding reserved pasta water a little at a time until sauce is thinned slightly and coats fettuccine (you may not need all the water). Serve, sprinkled with additional Parmesan and nuts.

Steps of making the pesto:

All aboard!

Pre oil and water

Ready to mingle with the pasta

I always serve this with chicken breasts.  My method for chicken is simple. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy oven safe pan over medium high heat.  Sprinkle garlic salt on one side of the chicken breasts.  Once the butter is melted place the chicken in the pan, garlic salt side down.  Sprinkle the other side of the chicken with garlic salt.  Cook chicken for about 3-4 minutes until browned, flip the chicken and cook again for 3-4 minutes.  Place the pan (with the chicken in it) in the oven to finish cooking, approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 165-170 degrees.

YUM!

I talk about garlic salt a lot so I thought I'd show you the kind I use.  Here it is:

This is the only garlic salt I use.  Why? Because when Jon and I were first dating it's what he had in his cupboard.  I liked it so much I adopted it as my own.  Jon thinks it's pretty funny how loyal I am to this particular garlic salt.  He thinks it's the parsley that makes me feel fancy.  I think it tastes good.

On the menu for tomorrow is frittata, but we'll see what happens.  Frittata has been on the menu since last week, things just keep getting in the way.  Our crazy week last week and, I think the biggest motivator, it just hasn't sounded good to me.  Jon asked for it.  I know I'll love it when I eat it so I just need to make it already!