Chicken Sausage Pasta with a Semi-Homemade Sauce

Sometimes when it's my turn to cook there's really no recipe inspiration striking and I do not have time to troll the internet to find something that works.  On those nights, sometimes an easy pasta dinner is just what the doctor ordered.  However, jarred pasta sauce isn't always something I am interested in using - I like to pretend some legitimate effort was put into this meal!  Turns out, crushed tomatoes are the key.

Dinner!

The Necessities...

• Chicken Parmesan sausages
• Broccolini
• Pound of pasta
• 1 onion
• 2 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 2 cups sliced white button mushroom
• Chicken Stock
• Large can of crushed tomatos
• 2-3 tablespoons basil
• 2-3 tablespoons oregano
• salt and pepper

To begin, I placed the chicken sausages (this really could be any protein) in a large fry pan over some medium heat with olive oil.  I only made little slices in the sausages before tossing them in the pan and just rotated them a few times until they were done.

Chicken Sausages

While the sausages were cooking away, I sliced up the mushrooms, chopped the onion and minced the garlic so it was ready.

Best of the rest

Once the sausages were cooked through and a bit browned on the outside, I removed them from the pan and set them aside for later.

Cooked sausages

I then added the garlic and onions to the pan with all the flavors from the sausage and let them cook until the onions were tender - about 5 minutes.  I added the mushrooms to the pan, and to make sure they did not stick I added about a half cup of chicken stock - just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.  I cooked the mushrooms for another 5 minutes until a bit brown and tender.

Cooking mushrooms...

Once the basics were cooked, I added the broccolini to the frying pan, put the top on and let the broccolini steam up to be nice and tender - about 5 minutes.  I must admit, I originally was going to saute the broccolini but that really was not going to work in this pan, but because of the chicken stock the broccolini streamed up really nicely.

About to steam-up

Finally, I added the whole can of crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper and gave the dish a big stir.

Crushed Tomatoes

When the tomatoes were heated and all the herbs were thoroughly mixed in with the rest of the ingredients, I added the cooked pasta to the pan with the crushed tomatoes and combined it all.

Almost done...

When the flavors were coming together, I cut up the sausages and added them back to the fry pan.

Ready to Serve

To serve, I scooped the pasta into a bowl and topped (generously) with grated Parmesan cheese.  I made some garlic bread to accompany this dish by just cutting a small baguette in half and drizzling it with olive oil and sprinkling some garlic powder on the halves and placing it in a 350 degree oven until nice and toasted.

Close-up

This really is a simple dish that comes together well.  Using the crushed tomatoes and a few herbs makes a nice and light sauce to enjoy without taking up loads of time.  Even better, this dish can be adapted to use what you have your fridge or whatever you are in the mood for.  I have made it in the past with some spinach as well as Canadian bacon - really, the possibilities are endless.  Regardless of what you add, the dish comes out tasty.

What is your go-to weekday dish?

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