Okay, so we love pasta at our house. We have them at least once a week, and we wanted to try something different and quick that can go in the regular weekly meal rotation. I was looking for a pasta recipe that did not use any sort of alfred0 or marinara type sauce, and I stumbled upon this one from Giada’s on Food Network, and I was floored at how easy this dish was to put together. It has basically ingredients that we normally have at our pantry and it turned out to be delicious as well. I modified the recipe a bit to make it heartier by adding chopped vegetables and organic sausages. This is now a one-stop dish and it’s fabulous… happy eating!
Inspired by Giada de Laurentiis
Ingredients
2 cups cooked sausages (or, if you prefer, you can skip this and make it into a vegetarian dish or replace with cooked chicken)
2 cups of eggplants (I have also substituted them with other vegetables like green/red peppers, squashes, and anything that would hold up well when sauteed)
12 ounces penne pasta
1 (8.5-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil, chopped them into fine pieces, keep the oil
2 garlic cloves
1 cup of thinly sliced onions
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, optional
2 tbsp of olive oil
Directions
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
Meanwhile, saute the garlic in olive oil in a big pan until it becomes soft, then add the onion, followed by the vegetables. When all of the ingredients are tender, about 3-5 minutes, add the sun-dried tomatoes. Turn off the stove.
Transfer the pasta into the big pan, combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the Parmesan.
Yield: 4-5 servings
This would also be good with some goat cheese added to give it some creaminess or perhaps some mild/sweet gorgonzola to balance the sausage? What do you think? My mom has a bunch of sun dried tomatoes from her garden. I am going to make this tonight with the goat cheese & see how it goes! Mmm…with some pinot noir, too??
Sure–try it and let me know! I found this recipe when I was going for non-dairy route
So delicious! Cant wait to try it!
[...] into the burger patties that I thought was so clever. I have added chopped sun dried tomatoes into pasta and sometimes frittata and they add so much flavor to those dishes. Sooo… why not [...]
[...] of items together (prosciutto, black olives, roasted red peppers, etc), mixed them together in sun-dried tomatoes with half of the dough, and everyone won. Nothing beats homemade pasta with great [...]