Last night’s dinner comes to you purely out of a mishap at the stove. When I set out to cook dinner yesterday, I actually wasn’t even planning on blogging it, but after my “error”, after gasping and thinking “oh my goodness, how am I going to fix this?”, I thought to myself “if this recipe turns out, I definitely need to write about it.” Turns out, this was a fortunate mishap.

I had four Sweet Italian chicken sausages in the oven and while they were baking and I was waiting for my pasta water to come to a boil, I started on my sauce. The first thing I did was sauté three cloves of minced garlic in two tablespoons of olive oil. Once the garlic had been cooking for only 30 seconds and was just beginning to become fragrant, I emptied a jar of marinated artichoke into the skillet. I then added a package of sun-dried tomatoes to the skillet. Next up … this is where the mishap comes in. You’ll want to pay attention at this point because this was the mistake that made this dish outstanding. I grabbed what I thought was a jar of red pepper flakes to add to the sauce. Without paying much attention (besides the coloring and shape of the jar), I removed the lid and started to “shake”. On those spices I use that I want to be able to fit a measuring spoon into so I can use more than just a tad, I remove the inside lid with the holes in it. I actually grabbed my smoked paprika instead and started to sprinkle (vigorously … which ended up being dumped, not sprinkled at all, into the skillet).

I immediately started coming up with a plan in my head to save my dinner. The plan started with adding the zest and juice of one very juicy lemon. If you have a lemon that’s a little less than juicy, use two. Once I added the lemon, I poured in 3/4 cup of Pinot Grigio and added kosher salt and the red pepper flakes I originally planned on. I grabbed a tasting spoon to try my sauce and it tasted really good! I let it simmer while the pasta was cooking. By this time, the sausages were done baking in the oven, so I cut them on the diagonal to add to the pan.

I stirred everything together and let it cook until the pasta was ready to add to the pan. I must say, this was really, really good. Sometimes a little mistake can turn out to be a new recipe that you’ll want to use again and again … I think that’s just what happened with this dish.

Upon serving the pasta, I added fresh basil to each dish for a little color, but most importantly for the wonderful taste and aroma that basil brings to a lot of dishes.

Ingredients

4 Sweet Italian Chicken Sausages

1 12-ounce jar of marinated artichokes, including liquid from jar

1 3-ounce package of sun-dried tomatoes

3 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup Pinot Grigio

2 tablespoons olive oil

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup smoked paprika

zest and juice of one lemon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place sausages on a sheet pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees and sausages are no longer pink in the middle.
2. Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Immediately add jar of artichokes and package of sun-dried tomatoes to pan. Stir.
3. Add smoked paprika, lemon zest and juice, wine, kosher salt and red pepper flakes. Mix well and let simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Slice and add cooked sausages to skillet. Mix into sauce and let simmer for a few minutes before adding pasta noodles.
5. Serve with fresh basil.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris