Sunday, November 23, 2014

Smoked Sausage Alfredo Pasta

Techically the 'test' recipe was this one but I'm not a fan of baking pasta when you don't have to and I envisioned a few changes. 

I knew I had picked up some turkey smoked sausage on the last Aldi trip and I was pretty sure I had at least one bag of frozen broccoli florets - and I picked up a ton of pasta over the past couple of weeks when it was on sale - so - natural progression to trying this one out.

I had the better half move the sausage from the freezer to the fridge to thaw before I got home just to make things easier (pause for inuendo). I called ahead on my way home to see if he also had found a bag of frozen broccoli - he hadn't so I stopped off at the Save-A-Lot to snag some broccoli and was hoping they'd have some Alfredo sauce so I wouldn't have to go to another store. Success - super fast and easy in and out (annnnd pause for more inuendo).

Ingredients I ended up using for this masterpiece:
Chef's Essence Roasted Garlic Alfredo Pasta Sauce - 12oz jar (Save-A-Lot)
Wylwood Broccoli Florets Steam Bag - 12oz bag (Save-A-Lot)
Barilla Penne Pasta - 1 16oz box
Fit & Active Turkey Kielbasa - 13oz (Aldi)
1 medium yellow onion
Sriracha Hot Sauce
Olive Oil





My process:
Diced the onion and sliced the turkey into 1/4" slices.
Sauteed the onion and sausage in a dab or olive oil and a squirt (probably around a tablespoon) of Sriracha sauce. I knew the sausage wasn't spicy, and I figured the alfredo sauce was going to be pretty bland because it was so inexpensive. And I like spicy!
Boiled the pasta to just past al dente.
Cooked the broccoli per the instructions (steam-in bag in the microwave).  
NOTE: you could just as easily use frozen broccoli. I would suggest flash steaming fresh broccoli if you prefer to use fresh - I don't think the fresh broccoli would cook enough in my stove-top version of this recipe without pre-steaming it.
Added the alfredo sauce to the sausage and onion while the pasta finished cooking.
Drained the pasta then added all of the ingredients back together in the pasta pan, and served.
Approximate total preparation time 25 minutes (complete from raw ingredients to serving).

D-VINE. This turned out way better than I had thought it would - and the other half gave it an enthusiastic two thumbs up as well. This one is definitely added into the rotation.


Finished Product


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