Tablespoons & Teaparties

Ingredients

• 1lb Gemelli pasta**
• 1 pkg hot Italian sausage (can also use sweet sausage, chicken sausage, etc)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 bunch of asparagus, ends cut off & stalks cut into 2″ pieces
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese + more for serving
• 4 tbsp olive oil

**My preferred pasta is Severino, which can be found at Whole Foods. Any other curly/twisted pasta will work well for this recipe.

Kitchen Tools

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Instructions

• Cut the sausage into 1″ pieces. You can also take the sausage out of the casing if you want to break it up into crumbles.
• Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a pan over medium-high heat.
• Sautee the sausage, stirring frequently. Cook through, approximately 10 minutes.
• While the sausage is cooking, start to boil the water for pasta. Add a generous amount of salt to the water.
• Once the sausage is cooked, scoop it out and move to a clean bowl. Keep the sausage drippings in the pan.
• Lower the heat to medium.
• To the pan that had the sausage in it, add the onion. Sautee until the onion starts to soften, 3-5 minutes.
• Add 2 tbsp olive oil, tomato, asparagus, garlic & salt
• Cook 8-10 minutes, until softened
• Meanwhile, add the pasta to the water. Give it a stir to prevent sticking. Cook according to package instructions.
• Add the butter to the tomato/asparagus mixture & stir to combine
• Add the sausage back into the pan
• The pasta should be ready at this point. Using a slotted spoon, scoop & transfer the pasta from the water into the pan with the sausage. Don’t drain the pasta.
• Add the parmesan cheese & stir vigorously to thicken*
• Serve while hot!

*If the pasta seems a little thick, add a few tsp at a time of pasta water to loosen it. If it seems too watery, add a little more parm and stir to thicken.