Bow Tie Pasta and Italian Turkey Sausage Skillet Meal
This will have you coming back for more.
Ingredients
For the Bow Tie Pasta:
- 1-1/2 cups uncooked bow tie (Farfalle) pasta
- water for boiling the pasta
- 3 dashes salt for the boiling water
For the Pasta and Turkey Sausage One-Skillet Meal:
- 2 Italian turkey sausages meat squeezed out of the casings
- 1/2 bell pepper cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick
- 1/2 onion cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick
- 1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 dashes salt
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) cut tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- Cooked (al dente) Bow Tie Pasta
- 6 thick slices mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese
For Garnish:
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- ground black pepper
Instructions
For the Bow Tie Pasta:
- In a medium size pot, add hot water and salt. Heat the pot on medium heat and bring to a boil.
- To the pot, add pasta and stir. Cook the pasta until just before its al-dente (according to package instructions). Drain the pasta (don’t rinse the pasta) and set aside.
- Don’t rinse the pasta after cooking it. When pasta is rinsed, the starch is removed. The starch on pasta helps to hold and absorb the sauce so it’s important to keep the starch on the pasta.
For the Pasta and Turkey Sausage One-Skillet Meal:
- Heat a large skillet on medium heat and add the sausage. With a heat resistant spatula, break apart the sausage into bite-size pieces. Stir.
- As the sausage cooks, add the sliced onions and bell peppers.
- Drizzle half of the olive oil over the sausage mixture and stir. The turkey sausage tends to cook on the dry side so olive oil is added to it while it's cooking.
- To the pan add red pepper flakes, pepper, oregano, and salt. Stir together.
- To the pan, add cut tomatoes, water, parsley and stir. Add the pasta and gently stir together.
- Top with slices of mozzarella cheese leaving space in between each slice. Add teaspoons full of ricotta cheese in between each slice of mozzarella.
- Top with the remaining olive oil and parsley. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.
- Cover the skillet with a lid, turn the heat down to low and let simmer until the mozzarella cheese melts (about 5 minutes).
- Garnish with ground black pepper and chopped parsley.
- Serve right away while warm.