A few weekends ago, my husband had a multitude of plans that involved him being out of the house for long stretches of time. This does not happen often on the weekend. I had a hankering for a dish I call State Fair Pasta, which he claims he doesn’t like because sausage isn’t healthy for you. He is never pleased when I cook sausage. But since he was going to be gone most of the weekend, I decided to give into my craving and make State Fair Pasta for myself.
I prefer a certain regional brand of Italian sausage. My Instacart shopper had a terrible time making the supermarket understand that I did not want the store brand patties, but the regional brand. I asked for patties but would settle for links. It was a true mess. I did get the correct brand patties. So yay me!
Here’s the recipe:
- 1 package of Italian sausage patties (the brand I use has 6 patties in a package), broken up. You can use links cut into coins or removed from the casings. I prefer sweet Italian sausage, but if you like hot, go for it.
- 2 sweet onions, cut into rings, then halved.
- 4-5 bell peppers, cut into strips. I use a mixture of red, yellow, and orange because I don’t like green bell peppers (my husband does). This batch was 2 each red & yellow plus one orange.
- 1 lb rotini pasta, cooked according to package instructions and drained.
- shaved or slivered parmesan cheese
I like to prep the onion and peppers before I start cooking the sausage because I’m slow.
- In a large, heavy pan (I use a cast iron Dutch oven), slowly brown the sausage on low heat, keeping it tightly covered when not stirring. You don’t want to lose any of the steam.
- When the sausage is cooked through (no visible pink), add the peppers and onion. Mix well into the sausage. Cover tightly and continue to cook on low heat, stirring occasionally. The peppers and onions will “melt”, their natural water mixing in with the sausage grease to create a thin sauce.
- When the contents of the pan have been reduced to about half, start boiling your pasta water.
- When pasta is cooked and drained, turn heat off sausage and peppers, then add the pasta to the pot. Mix well.
- Serve with parmesan cheese to taste.
I feasted like royalty!
