Sausage and Lentils

I like lentils but don't use them that often. I had taken some spicy turkey sausage out for dinner but wasn't really sure what to do with it. Then it dawned on me that sausage and lentils would be a tasty combination. I've seen a lot of lentil recipes use bay leaf when cooked but I didn't have any. So feel free to add that in if you want. I used a whole package of lentils and I believe the package said to use about 4 cups of water for the entire package. I had to add a little more at the end of the 20-30 minute cooking time because they were still a little hard for my taste, but everything turned out beautifully.

1 package Jennie-O spicy turkey sausage
olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1-2 carrots (or enough bite-size carrots), chopped
1 package lentils
1 bay leaf (optional)
4 cups water
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh parsley, chopped

Add a little olive oil to a large skillet and brown sausage on all sides.

In the meantime, in a large saucepan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the garlic, onion, celery and carrots and saute until tender. Add in the lentils, bay leaf and water. Cook for about 20-30 minutes.

When the sausage is finished cooking, slice into bite-size pieces. There should now be yummy bits left in the bottom of the skillet. When the lentils are finished cooking, add them to the skillet along with the sliced sausage to mix in the bits of yumminess on the bottom of the pan and to flavor the lentils a little more. Season with salt and pepper, add in the fresh parsley and enjoy!

Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage

It was Jim's turn to come up with dinner. We had already taken some Jennie-O hot Italian turkey sausages out of the freezer so that's what he had to work with. Well he found this recipe and it turned out really good! The recipe actually calls for sweet sausage and we used hot, so I would like to try this out with the sweet sausage next time. And the recipe also calls for heavy cream but Jim decided to use Half & Half instead...it worked fine.

1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
1 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage - we used hot in links but we just removed the casings
4 cloves garlic, cracked and chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
4 to 6 sprigs sage leaves, cut into chiffonade, about 2 tablespoons
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock, canned or paper container
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup (3 turns around the pan) heavy cream - we used Half & Half
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg, ground or freshly grated
Coarse salt and black pepper
1 pound penne rigate, cooked to al dente
Romano or Parmigiano, for grating

Heat a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and brown the sausage in it. Transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate. Drain fat from skillet and return pan to the stove. Add the remaining tablespoon oil, and then the garlic and onion. Saute 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender. Add bay leaf, sage, and wine to the pan. Reduce wine by half, about 2 minutes. Add stock and pumpkin and stir to combine, stirring sauce until it comes to a bubble. Return sausage to pan, reduce heat, and stir in cream. Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce. Return drained pasta to the pot you cooked it in. Remove the bay leaf from sauce and pour the sausage pumpkin sauce over pasta. Combine sauce and pasta and toss over low heat for 1 minute. Garnish the pasta with lots of shaved cheese and sage leaves.

Sausage and Pasta Bake II

This recipe is pretty much the same one as I made before, but this time I attempted making my own sort of Alfredo sauce to go along with it...plus I added in some asparagus.

1 bunch of roasted asparagus cut into bite size pieces
1 package hot Italian turkey sausage - of course regular Italian sausage will work as well

1 pound pasta of your choice

1-2 cups fresh spinach

Sauce:

3 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

2 cups milk

1-1/2 cups cheese (we used 8 oz of cream cheese and the rest Parmesan cheese)

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. garlic powder

black pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. In the meantime, heat up a skillet, remove the casings from the sausage and add it to the skillet. Cook the sausage until there is no more pink.

For the sauce, add the butter and flour to a sauce pan and whisk on low heat until the mixture just starts to turn a light brown color. Add in the milk and whisk constantly until the mixture starts to thicken. (In the meantime, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box). Once it thickens a little, add in the cheeses, salt, garlic powder and black pepper and whisk to combine.

Drain the pasta and return to the pot adding the spinach so it begins to wilt. Also add in the roasted asparagus. Once the sausage is cooked, add it to the pot with the pasta, spinach and asparagus. Stir in the Alfredo sauce. Transfer the mixture to a 13x9 baking dish and top with grated Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Add parsley for garnish if you'd like. Enjoy!

Ultimate Lasagna

So yesterday was Valentine's Day and I told Jim I'd make him his favorite...lasagna. I found a few recipes online, sent them to him and this is the one he picked. It called for cinnamon, which I was a little hesitant on adding, since I had added it to a meat dish once before and it was horrible. Jim told me to keep the recipe as it was and not change anything. Well it was really good, but you could definitely taste the cinnamon. I think next time I would just leave it out. We also cut the recipe in half since the original uses a 4-inch deep 13x9 pan. I just served this with a salad and some breadsticks.

1 pound dried lasagna noodles
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground Italian sausage - I used the Jennie-O Hot Lean Italian Turkey Style Sausage and removed the casings
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1.5 carrots, chopped
1 stalks celery, chopped
1 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup finely chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
1/2 tbsp. chopped oregano leaves
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup red wine
1 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes (recommended: San Marzano)
1.2 tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 quart ricotta cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
Grated Parmesan and mozzarella, for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook the lasagna noodles in plenty of boiling salted water until pliable and barely tender, about 10 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. Drain the noodles thoroughly and coat with olive oil to keep them moist and easy to work with.

Coat a large skillet with olive oil, add beef and sausage and brown until no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. In a food processor, combine the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, basil, parsley, an oregano. Process until pureed, add to the pan with the ground meat and stir to combine. Stir in the flour. Add the wine and cook until it has reduced by half. Stir in the tomatoes and add the heavy cream and the cinnamon.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta and the parmesan. Stir in the eggs and season with salt and pepper.

To assemble the lasagna: Coat the bottom of a deep 13 by 9-inch pan with olive oil. Arrange 4 noodles lengthwise in a slightly overlapping layer on the sauce. Then, line each end of the pan with a lasagna noodle. This forms a collar that holds in the corners. Dollop 1/2 of the ricotta mixture over the pasta, spread to the edges with a spatula. Spread 1/2 of the meat mixture over the ricotta. Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella on top of the ricotta. Top with a ladle full of sauce, spread evenly. Repeat with the next layer of noodles, ricotta, sauce, and cheeses. Top last layer with noodles, sauce, shredded mozzarella and Parmesan. Tap the pan to force out air bubbles. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Let lasagna rest for 30 minutes so the noodles will settle and cut easily.

Italian Sausage, Peppers and Onions

I've made a pretty similar recipe before, so this was only slightly different. It was quite delicious though! I used a recipe I found on All Recipes.

1 package Jennie-O hot turkey sausages
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
1 medium red onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 - 1/2 cup beer

2 tbsp. tomato paste

Place the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, and brown on all sides. Remove from skillet, and slice. Leave a little of the oil from sausages in the pan and add the olive oil and heat on medium. Stir in the yellow onion, red onion, and garlic, and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in red bell pepper and green bell pepper. Season with basil, and oregano. Stir in beer and tomato paste. Continue to cook and stir until peppers and onions are tender. Return sausage slices to skillet with the vegetables. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes, or until sausage is heated through. We served it over brown rice.

Sausage and Pasta Bake

Once again, a shout-out to the people at Jennie-O Turkey for the hot Italian sausage. I love this stuff! I was stranded at home since our truck was in the shop so I had to come up with something using stuff we already had. I thought it turned out pretty yummy!

I used a packaged Alfredo sauce, but I probably could have just as easily made a bechamel sauce. Maybe next time. I also thought that the one package wasn't enough sauce, but Jim loved it. You could also use a jarred Alfredo sauce as well.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 package hot Italian turkey sausage - of course regular Italian sausage will work as well
1 (16 ounce) package mini bow-tie pasta (farfalle)
1-2 cups fresh spinach
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 package Alfredo sauce, prepared
salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. In the meantime, heat the oil in a medium skillet on medium-high heat, remove the casings from the sausage and add it to the skillet. With a few minutes of cooking time left, add the chopped garlic and continue to cook the sausage until there is no more pink. Add the bow-tie pasta to the water and cook approximately 7 minutes for the mini-version. Drain and return to the pot adding the spinach so it begins to wilt. Once the sausage is cooked, add it to the pot with the pasta and spinach. Stir in the Alfredo sauce, salt and pepper. Transfer the mixture to a 13x9 baking dish and top with grated Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil. At this point I stuck it in the fridge since I wasn't actually cooking it until later. Either way, bake in oven for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Turkey sausage, red beans and rice

I had some of the sweet Italian turkey sausage and needed to find a way to use it. Plus we were limited on what we had at home, but I knew we had beans and rice. So I decided to find a red beans and rice recipe. I was almost positive I had a can of diced tomatoes at home, but of course once I got home, I found out I didn't. So I used tomato sauce instead. I would make this again, but definitely use diced tomatoes next time. I used this recipe and made some variations.

1 package Jennie-O turkey sausage, cut into 1/2 inch slices

1 boil-in-bag brown rice*

2 tbsp. olive oil

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 (15 oz) can kidney beans

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice according to type you choose. In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic and cook until almost tender. Stir in the sausage and cook thoroughly until there is no more pink. Mix in the beans, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper. Continue cooking until heated through. Serve mixture over rice.

*I used a 10-minute boil in bag brown rice, but you could use any rice you like. The recipe calls for 1 cup of uncooked long-grain white rice and 2 cups of water to cook the rice in.

Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Beer!

I love the hot turkey sausage from Jennie-O turkey, so I'm always on the look out for a recipe to try it in. I came across this recipe and just tweaked it to what I had on hand. I just served it over some brown rice. This is definitely something I'd make again

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package turkey dinner sausages (hot or sweet, your choice)
1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1-1/3 large red onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1-1/3 (12 fluid ounce) bottles beer
2/3 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I didn't have this so I didn't use it - I used fresh basil instead)
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon hot sauce (I left this out since I used the spicy sausage)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Cook sausage until browned on all sides. Remove sausage from pan, and set aside. Pour in 1 bottle of beer to deglaze the pan, scraping up any blackened bits from the bottom. Place the peppers, onions and garlic in the pan. Stir in the remaining beer and the tomato paste. Season with oregano, cilantro (basil), hot sauce (optional), salt and pepper. Cover, and simmer until onions and peppers are tender. Slice the sausages into bite size pieces, and add to the peppers. Cover, and simmer until sausage is cooked through.

Penne with Spicy Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce

I found this on All Recipes and Jim really likes this one, so that's a good thing! Instead of using 2 links of sweet sausage, I used 5 links of hot turkey sausage. We like it spicy and meaty!

1 pound uncooked penne pasta

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

3/4 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. vodka

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 (3.5 ounce) links sweet Italian sausage

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. In large skillet, heat oil over moderate heat. Remove casing from sausage and add to skillet. Cook, breaking up the meat, until brown. Add garlic and red pepper and cook, stirring until garlic is golden brown. Add tomatoes and salt; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Add vodka and cream and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and add pasta, toss for 1 minute. Stir in fresh parsley and serve!