Pasta with Italian Sausage and Spinach
A hearty 30 minute meal that feeds a crowd! You will need a 14" pan or dutch oven for this recipe
Servings 8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian Sausage removed from casings (I use 1/2 pound of spicy Italian sausage and a 1/2 pound of mild or swee, use any combo you wish)
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, separated
- 16 oz bite size pasta, I used orecchiette, but penne, farfalle and fusilli work great too
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (or grated with microplane)
- 1 large shallot, sliced thinly
- 1/2-1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, depending on your heat tolerance
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1-1 ½ cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Place a large pot of salted water on cooktop on high heat. Cook pasta to package instructions. While waiting for water to boil and pasta to cook prep the rest of your ingredients:
- Remove sausage from casings, heat a large pan on medium heat. Add two tablespoon olive oil to pan. Add sausage and cook through, using a spatula to break up meat. Stir frequently, 7-8 minutes. While sausage is cooking a water is heating, prep, garlic, shallot and grate cheese (don't forget to add pasta to water when it boils.
- When sausage is done, use a slotted spoon to remove from pan and place on paper towel lined plate, leaving fat in the pan. Add garlic to fat left in the pan and cook for two minutes on med/low heat stirring frequently. Add shallot and red pepper flakes and cook for two more minutes, stirring often. Add sausage back to pan, turn off heat. Place spinach on top of sausage (I know it's a lot, but it's about to get wilted!) When pasta is done, strain in a colander but DO NOT rinse. Immediately add pasta to pan on top of spinach, allow to steam for one minute, this will wilt the spinach. Drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, to taste. Toss. Pour onto a platter, toss with grated Parmesan and serve!