That’s the view from our front door this morning.  I really really like it.  The trees in the background are a beautiful mixture of green, yellow, and orange-ish brown.  And then there’s our one tree that turns colors.  Purdy.

You know what else I’m enjoying?  Some delicious leftovers.  We made sausage and broccoli the other day, and I’ve been thinking about my next chance to make that combo ever since.  I changed up the original recipe a fair bit, so this is what actually happened:

Broccoli and Sausage Pasta

Makes 4 hearty servings, takes about 15 minutes from start to finish (if you’re slow like I am)

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. pasta of your choice–I suggest something like rigatoni or bow-tie pasta
• 1 large bunch of broccoli, cut into florets + as much of the broccoli stem (chopped up) as you want to use
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 lb. sausage–sweet Italian or spicy Gunno’s breakfast sausage (our pick), any kind as long as it’s out of the casing
• Parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Heat a medium frying pan (or skillet… whatever you want to call it) to medium-high heat, add oil, then add onion when hot.  Cook onion until soft, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add sausage to pan and cook until it’s browned and crumbly.  Use a wooden spoon to help with the crumbling process.
4. Add broccoli to the pan, season with salt and pepper to taste.  If you use the spicy sausage, you won’t need too much of either.  Put about 1/4 cup water in the bottom of the pan, cover pan with lid and let cook for 3-ish minutes or until the broccoli is cooked just the way you like it.
5. Drain the pasta whenever it’s finished cooking.  Combine pasta with broccoli and sausage mixture.  Grate some Parmesan on top after serving.

That might look like a lot of instructions, but it’s so easy!  You could do this without a recipe.  Just cook some onions, add some meat, throw in the broccoli, and put it all over pasta.  Yum.  You could even double the broccoli and cut out the pasta if you wanted to up the health factor.

Happy pre-weekend!