Shell Pasta with Sausage and Asparagus Recipes

With asparagus selling for less than $2.00 per pound, they're hard to resist. I’ve been cooking a lot of dishes with it. I steam, grill, stir-fry and make soup out it. I even cook pasta with it too. This is a perfect dish for spring with the great flavor combination of asparagus and Italian sausage. This recipe is simple, both in taste and method and you can also change the sausage to other protein and the asparagus to other vegetables.

Ingredients :

1/2 box of small shell pasta
3 links of fresh Italian sausage (I used turkey sausage)
1 pound of asparagus – cut into 1” length
3 fresh tomatoes - cut into 1/2" cubes
3 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 tsp of chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add in some salt. Cook pasta according to the instruction on the box.
2. While the pasta is cooking, in a large sauté pan over high heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Remove sausage from the casing and sauté and cook until golden brown. Remove meat from pan and set aside.
3. In the same pan, sauté the garlic until lightly brown. If there is not enough oil add in an extra 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add in the asparagus and cook for a minute. Season with salt, pepper and chili flakes
4. Add in chopped tomatoes, stir for a few second and return the sausage back to the pan. Mix well and add in the cook pasta. Mix until everything combined. Check sesoning.
5. If the pasta is a bit dry you can add in a bit of the pasta water. Turn off the heat and add in the grated cheese. Stir well and serve warm.

Other pasta dish : Cajun Chicken and Shrimp Pasta