Don’t you just want a nice heaping bowl of pasta every once in a while?  I honestly don’t incorporate pasta all that often in our recipes, much to the chagrin of my husband; who could eat pasta and bread everyday with no guilt!

For this recipe, I used whole wheat pasta (you could use any kind you like) Whole-wheat pasta used to be hard to stomach. So many people tried it in the past and were turned off; never to try it again ~ Sure, it was good for you—loaded with vitamins and minerals and containing two to three times as much fiber as refined-wheat pasta, but the consistency ranged from brittle to sticky while taste traveled from bland to bitter.  Today the way this pasta is made has transformed its taste and I would highly recommend giving it another go. Whole-wheat pasta, which is made from flour that uses the entire grain seed and contains slightly more protein than refined-wheat pasta has a taste of nutty and earthy tones.  Well worth substituting your typical processed white pasta.

Also I added tons of veggies and used chicken sausage rather than a beef or kielbasa.  By adding veggies and chicken sausage to the whole wheat pasta you have a meal that’s just better for you all around.  This turned out great and I loved the flavor profile of the entire bowl.  I managed to only eat one bowl by the way.. Not that I did not want to get another one =)

1 (16 ounce) package penne Whole Wheat pasta

4 (3.5 ounce) links chicken sausages, sliced

1 onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

2 tsp oil (I used Garlic and Parmesan infused oil)

a few shakes of red pepper flakes (to your taste)

salt to taste

ground black pepper to taste

1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes Chopped

1/4 cup sherry

2 tsp corn starch

1/4 cup water

3 zucchinis, thickly sliced

In a large pot with boiling salted water cook pasta until al dente. Drain.

Mix the cornstarch and water and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large pan cook the onion and garlic in the oil, Add the Italian seasoning, salt and ground black pepper, red pepper flakes and stir together. Sweat the onion for about three minutes then add the sliced chicken.

Once the onion is caramelized and the chicken is just about cooked through and browning; deglaze with the sherry. Deglazing is a fancy and intimidating word that means to pour some cold liquid into a very hot pan to get up all the brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Those brown bits are where all the flavors is!

Once the sherry has cooked off add the tomatoes and zucchini. The vegetable and tomato will start to release their liquids making a nice juice in the pan, to this we will add the slurry.

Slurry is the mixture of water and cornstarch, this will thicken the pan sauce for us. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender. Simmer until zucchini is tender yet crisp.

Serve on the pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (optional)

Thank you for looking at my recipe and feedback is always welcome.  I can be reached at Lauralovinglife@hotmail.com

Bon Apetit

LauraLovingLife

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