Gorgonzola Sausage Pasta

This is a tasty and fast pasta dinner that everyone in the family should love.  You can control how spicy the dish is by your sausage choice.  Today I used a spicy Italian sausage and took it out of the casing.  You can slice the sausage and leave it in the casing if you prefer.  Start by putting on a pot of water to boil for the pasta.  After the pasta water is going start cooking the sausage and cut up the veggies.  I love spinach in pasta it adds a great flavor.  I hate taking a bite and having slimy spinach slide through-to avoid that I chop spinach into little pieces.

Make sure to wash it well (no one likes sand in their food) and chop it up into bite sized pieces.  I also put in carrots, green and red peppers, garlic and green onions.  You can use whatever veggies you have on hand or love.  I have used broccoli, white and red onions, kale and cabbage in the past.  I use pre-chopped garlic.  We buy the large size and use it with everything.  It saves a lot of time and makes dinner prep so much faster.

Once the sausage is cooked through add the veggies.  If you use precooked sausage you can cook everything at once.   I don't use butter or any oil.  The sausage usually has enough fat in it to make sure that the sausage doesn't stick to the pan.

As soon as the spinach cooks down and everything else is warmed through-take the pan off the heat.  I like my carrots to be crunchy so I don't cook them first.  If you prefer your carrots to be soft, add them first and add the remaining veggies according to how long they need to cook.  (It's your dinner-make it how you like it).

Once the veggies are done and the spinach is cooked down it can be added to your pasta.  I used rotini pasta and cooked it to the instructions.  Drain the pasta water.  Pour the sausage and veggies into the pasta and mix it up.  Add a fourth of a cup to a half cup of Gorgonzola cheese (This will add a lot of strong flavor to the dish-if you do not like spicy or heavily flavored dishes use less Gorgonzola).  You can use blue cheese or another strong cheese if you don't like Gorgonzola.   Also add a cup of Parmesan cheese.  Mix until the cheese melts and serve with crusty bread.

Gorgonzola Sausage Pasta (4 servings)

Sausage- one per person (cut into slices or ground)
Carrots-chopped (2 carrots)
Green Onions-chopped (1/2 bunch)
Red pepper (1 chopped)
Green pepper (1 chopped)
Spinach ( 1 bunch-cut into bite size pieces)
Garlic- 1 clove chopped
Pasta-according to directions/serving sizes
Gorgonzola- 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Parmesan- 1 cup

Cook pasta and sausage separately.  Add vegetables and cook according to how you like your vegetables.  Mix the drained pasta with sausage and vegetables.  Add cheeses and mix until melted.  Serve and enjoy.