Penne pasta with Sausage & Homemade Garlic Bread

I made this dinner tonight for Alex and I on Thursday and Alex ate three helpings and asked if he could keep some of the leftovers.

When my parents came down this weekend, my dad tried it and ate almost all of the leftovers so I can definitely say this was one of my best dishes yet!

The original recipe was from Sandra Lee’s show, "Money-Saving Meals”, but I adapted it to fit my tastes (which makes it even more exciting that it actually turned out :))  I’m listing her recipe and my alterations are listed in bold.  Enjoy!

From:  Sandra Lee, Food Network

Prep: 10 min       Total:  35 min       Serves: 4 (huge servings!)

* 1 pound penne pasta
* 2 tablespoons olive oil (used vegetable oil instead)
* 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced (left this out)
* 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped (used garlic salt instead and added some more as I cooked - whatever I thought it needed)
* 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning mix (I also added some more after it started cooking)
* 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flake, optional (left this out)
* 4 Italian-style hot pork sausages, cut into 1/2-inch slices (got mild Italian ground sausage instead...it was much easier to deal with :))
* 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained (I wanted more sauce so I left the juice in)
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1/4 cup heavy cream
* Basil leaves, for garnish (I left this off)

I followed the directions accordingly, just left out or substituted as listed above :)

Bring large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a large deep skillet over medium-high heat, add olive oil. Add onion, garlic, Italian seasoning mix and red pepper flakes, if using. Sir frequently and cook until the onions are soft and fragrant, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add sausage and cook for 1 minute. Add can of crushed tomatoes, stirring all the ingredients together to combine. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste and let simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in heavy cream and mix well.
Drain the pasta and add directly to the skillet with the sauce Toss the pasta to coat with the sauce. Transfer to a serving bowl or platter and garnish with basil leaves.

As for the garlic bread, Sandra Lee just took store-bought garlic bread and added cheese.  Our grocery store was out of fresh garlic bread, so I just got a french loaf, put a slice of “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter” and some garlic salt on each one and baked them at 400 until cheese was melted :)