Review: If you like spicy foods this is the meal for you! If you use regular smoked sausage it might not be super spicy so if you can handle the heat I recommend getting Hillshire Farms Beef Hot Links to add to it. Using both regular smoked sausage and the hot links also gives you a little more meat. The hot links come in a package of six and the more you use the hotter it will be. I used all six for this meal but you could use three hot links and save the other three for a separate meal (as I've done before). You also don't have to use sausage. I have made this recipe three times now and I made it with chicken once and I made it with chicken and sausage before. You also could put shrimp in it if you like shrimp, or it's a nice meal if you don't want any meat. You might add a few different kinds of vegetables if you want to make it vegetarian.
As for the sauce, I used Picante medium chunky salsa. Picante makes salsa and sauce and I have used both. Whichever one you use is up to you. If you like more runny spaghetti sauce, for example, you might go with the Picante sauce. If you like yours a little more chunky you might go with the salsa. The Picante also comes in varying heats. I usually get the medium but I believe they also sell mild and hot. Finally, the recipe calls for red or green peppers. I tend to get the green to add more color to the meal but it's up to you on if you even want to add peppers. It also called for mushrooms but I don't like them so I left that out but you could add it if you want. The amount of ingredients the recipe calls for says it will make four servings, but I think it's actually enough for six to eight (I used the whole box of linguine though so that's partly why), so if it's just going to be you and one other person you might cut the ingredients in half.
Recipe:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 clove garlic, minced (you can just buy a jar of minced garlic if you want)
- 10 small pork sausage links, cut up (use however much sausage or meat product you want and I sliced the sausages into bite-sized pieces)
- 1/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed
- 1 jar (24 ounces) Pace Picante Sauce or Pace Chunky Salsa
- 3 medium green or red pepper, cut into 1/4-inch rings (about 24 rings) (I actually diced the peppers)
- 1 medium onion, sliced (about 1/2 cup) (again, I diced the onion)
- 8 fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 3 cups)
- 1/2 of a 16-ounce package linguine, cooked and drained (about 4 cups)
- grated Parmesan cheese
Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, sausages and Italian seasoning. Cook until the sausages are well browned and cooked through. Stir the Picante sauce, peppers, onion and mushrooms in the skillet. Heat to a boil. Cover the skillet. Reduce the heat to low. Cook for 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Serve over the linguine and sprinkle with the cheese.
Obviously you'll want to follow the directions on the box to make the pasta. For the garlic bread I made with it I just buttered some bread, sprinkled some garlic powder on the bread and then stuck it in the oven at 325 degrees for 5-10 minutes.
This is a fairly quick, easy, yet spicy meal that can be modified based on ingredients you like or dislike. Following the additional directions I gave by adding the hot links and the medium chunky salsa I'd say makes it a 3.5, maybe 4, out of 5 stars on the spicy scale but if you left those out and just used the regular smoked sausage and maybe the mild sauce it would probably be around 2 out of 5 stars. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
I found the recipe online at kitchendaily.com but the direct link to the recipe can be found here in case you want to look at the original source.
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