One Pot: Farfalle Pasta, Sausage and Vegetables

The idea behind this recipe was to make a delicious one pot meal and use up some ingredients that I had on hand. This dish uses a mild Italian sausage complimented with some bell peppers, zucchini and mushrooms, onions and grape tomatoes. Adding in pasta makes this a complete meal and easily serves six or more portions.
A beautiful thing about this dish is that you can eliminate a vegetable and replace it with another one. Also I dumped in the whole container of grape tomatoes but you can use half the container and save the other half for use in a salad. One colorful pepper is fine to use; I just happened to have half of a green pepper available and also had some mushrooms that needed to be used. Make this your own dish and one that is affordable to you. Also, if you don't have quite enough chicken broth on hand, use 3 cups of broth and 1 cup of water.

• 1 lb. Italian Sausage - sweet
• 1/2 box Farfalle pasta
• 1 container grape tomatoes
• 1 small onion - medium dice
• 2 small zucchini - sliced on the bias or straight cut
• 8 button mushrooms - stems removed and sliced
• 1/2 green bell pepper - medium sized chunks
• 1 yellow bell pepper - medium sized chunks
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• 3 small cloves garlic - fine chop
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp. olive oil

1. Begin by having all of your vegetables prepped: slice the zucchini, remove the seeds and veins from the peppers and cut them in medium sized chunks. Have the garlic minced and the onion chopped.
2. Heat a deep pot or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add in about a tablespoon of olive oil to give the sausage a place to start browning. Brown the sausage on both sides over medium heat. This takes about 4 minutes per side. When they are done take them out of the pan and move them to a waiting plate. They will not be all the way cooked at this point. When the sausages have cooled down a bit cut them into bite sized pieces.
3. Turn the heat down a touch and add in the onion and garlic. At this point add a touch of salt and black pepper. Cook and stir for about a minute or so. Take a touch of the chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pan getting up all of the good bits.
4. Next, toss in the mushrooms and cook and stir for another minute. To that then add in the rest of the vegetables. Add just a touch of salt and pepper to all of the vegetables. Stir.
5. Add in the can of tomato sauce, the pieces of sausage along with the spices and the rest of the chicken broth.
6. Let this simmer covered for about 30-45 minutes for the flavors to develop.
7. Bring the heat up and the mixture to a bubble then add in half a box of farfalle pasta, cover and cook for 11-12 minutes until the pasta is tender. You can uncover the lid in the last couple of minutes to allow evaporation and concentration in flavor. Toss in the grape tomatoes at the end and just let them cook for 1-2 minutes.
8. There will be plenty of good broth so if you want, have some garlic toast to serve with this to soak up all of the goodness.

This dish cost me $16.09 to make and definitely serves six people (and more if you have small children) for $2.68 per portion. And, if you are a family of three or four there will be left overs for another night or for packing for lunches at the office.

This is a winner, winner, one pot dinner. Full of beautiful and healthy vegetables and packed with flavor.