Pastarama - A Pantry Searching Creation

Tonight was a "I don't have any urge to eat dinner" kind of night. However, Fred worked his tail off getting the 3 garden beds ready for fall planting. He was out there for hours. The boy needed some fuel. What to make? It needed to be substantial, fairly healthy and not too tough to make. The pantry had some promising items. I found a couple of partially used packages of fusilli pasta. There was that yummy pesto from the other day. I had one Fieldroast Italian sausage left and some jarred goodies. I thought, "I can come up with something pretty tasty with this stuff."

Here is what transpired:

Silli Fusilli

Makes 2 really big servings OINK!!

8 oz fusilli pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 link Field Roast Italian sausage (or you favorite vegan Italian sausage link), sliced about 1/4" thick
1 small white onion, slivered
1 large roasted red bell pepper, cut in half and sliced into strips
4 oil packed sun dried tomatoes, sliced into thin strips
10 or so pitted Kalamata olives, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup vegan basil pesto
2 tablespoon parsley leaves, roughly chopped

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in a colander and run under cold water to stop cooking. Set aside.

While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in large iron skillet or saute pan over medium high heat. Add sliced sausage in a single layer. Saute until golden brown and slightly crispy, approximately 3-4 minutes. Turn slices, move to one side of the pan (on the cooler side of the pan) and brown the other side.

After turning the sausages, add sliced onions. Reduce heat to medium. Saute until the onions are nicely browned, about 5-7 minutes. If sausage is getting too browned, you can remove them from the pan and set aside on a small plate. Add the roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes and olives. Saute until they are heated through, about 3-5 minutes.

Add cooked pasta and stir until combined and heated through. Add pesto and toss until pasta is well coated. Saute for another 2 minutes or so until the pesto is warm.

Serve immediately. Garnish with chopped parsley. Yummy with a nice simple salad and garlic bread.