This recipe evolved out of one of those rare nights when I opened the fridge to figure out what we were going to have for dinner and I just stared…and stared…and stared…wishing this was an episode of the Jetson’s where I could just press a button and a fully cooked meal would appear out of some space age machine. As you can guess… it didn’t happen. I ALWAYS have meals planned out for the week… but…for some reason with whatever was going on in life, it didn’t happen.
As I came to the reality that my Jetson’s dream was not coming true, I started to rummage through the drawers and shelves in the fridge and just pull out a bit of this and that. I had some frozen chicken Italian sausage. Leftover tomatoes from a salad earlier in the week. Always had onions & garlic & sea salt & olive oil on hand. Basil in the garden. And a Handful of spinach left from smoothies. Pantry is always stocked with Jovial Brown Rice Pasta of some shape or another. Bam. Dinner. And it was yummy.
While that wasn’t bad for a “thrown together” meal, it clearly left an opportunity to kick it up a notch and make this in to a family favorite! This next time around I threw in some chopped pancetta and fresh mozzarella! Now, if you don’t do “cow dairy” then you can choose buffalo mozzarella or some crumbled goat cheese or leave the cheese out altogether. If you don’t do “gluten” use an alternative like brown rice or quinoa pasta. If you don’t “do grains” then make Zoodles {aka zucchini noodles} or spaghetti squash. Ya see, there are so many recipes we shy away from because we read the ingredient list and notice something we can’t have or prefer to avoid. There are usually substitutes or no harm done to leave a certain ingredient out. Let’s say you prefer pork sausage… go for it… leave the chicken sausage behind… you see where I am going with this, folks?
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Sea salt fine
- 3 Garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup Onions diced
- 1 Pound Chicken Italian sausage links Substitute pork if you prefer and cut into 1" chunks
- 1 cup Pancetta Have deli slice 1/4" thick then dice in to 1/4" cubes
- 1 cup Tomatoes-grape or roma chopped
- 1/4 cup Fresh basil chopped
- 2 cups Fresh spinach chopped
- 1 cup Fresh Mozzarella cut in to 1/2" pieces
Ingredients
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- Preheat large/deep skillet over medium heat for a minute then add the olive oil and continue to preheat for another minute
- Add the garlic to the skillet and saute for 1 minute then add the onion and continue to saute for 2-3 minutes until the onions soften and start to brown slightly
- Add the pancetta and saute for 2-3 minutes then add the cut up sausage links and continue to saute 5 minutes, turning occasionally to brown the sausage on all sides. Turn heat down to low, add lid and allow sausage to cook through for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid. Add the tomatoes and salt and stir. Allow to cook on low for 1 minute.
- Add the basil and spinach and stir while allowing to cook for 1 minute then turn off the heat.
- It should now be an explosion of color and fragrance!
- Toss in the Mozzarella cheese (or sub the goat or buffalo cheese or leave out the cheese all together). Stir it all up nicely. You can now either toss the cooked pasta or pasta alternative in to the skillet and combine or you can just serve the mixture over your bowl of pasta. Up to you!
If you do enjoy dairy, then a hearty sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top is heavenly!
I did not include pasta instructions since some do wheat, some do gluten free alternatives, some do Zoodles (zuchinni noodles) and some spaghetti squash... so just follow your package instructions. If doing zoodles, be sure to allow them to sit on a paper towel for about 20 minutes with a light sprinkling of salt on them so that the excess water drains out of them before you cook them in your preferred way.
Let me know how you like it and if you do any cool variations!
The recipes, stories and photography on my blog are my own creations {unless otherwise noted) and take a lot of time & testing. I do appreciate it if you use them that you give proper credit and link back to my blog. If you make changes to something I created, it’s still a nice gesture to link back to my blog and mention where it originated from. If you ever have any questions about sharing content, don’t hesitate to contact me! thanks ya’ll…happy sharing!
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