Italian Sausage and Cremini Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients:
1 leek, cleaned and sliced into quarter-inch "circles" (white and light green parts only)
1 Tbl olive oil
8 oz Cremini mushrooms, cleaned and quartered. (These are the same as baby Portobello mushrooms.)
1 Italian sausage per person (Hot, mild or medium--you choose), cut into one-inch chunks
Pasta for 2 (You choose linguini, penne or spaghetti. Follow the package for amount to cook.)
1 25-oz jar of pasta sauce. (I use tomato vodka sauce, but just about any tomato-based sauce will do.)
3/4 cup whipping cream or half-and-half
Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top
In a large saute pan, cook the leek and sliced sausage in olive oil on Medium until the leek is soft and the sausage is half cooked. You'll still see some pink in the middle of the sausage. (About 4 minutes.) Add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms give off their liquid and the sausage is cooked all the way through. (About 5 minutes more.) Cut a sausage piece open to see that the pink is gone.
While this is all cooking, you can cook your pasta in boiling water. Follow the package instructions for cooking times because, depending on which pasta you choose, cooking time will vary.
Back to the sauce... Add the cream and the pasta sauce from the jar to your saute pan. Stir to combine. Heat just until hot and just simmering. Turn off.
Drain your pasta and put in a large bowl. Pour the sauce on top and stir to combine. Or, alternatively, put your plain pasta on the plate or in individual pasta bowls and pour a portion of sauce on top. It just depends on how you like your pasta served.
Note: These are huge servings because of the amount of sauce you have. You can save some sauce or put in another sausage or two to stretch to serve 3 or 4 people.
Sprinkle grated parmesan on top to your taste. Savor the creamy yet tangy sauce and enjoy!
B-man
