Dennis had his softball game Thursday night, which means he has a pb&j sandwich for dinner. Kylie was going on a dinner date. I was going to enjoy a pb&j with Dennis, but decided after having just a bowl of rice Chex for lunch and toast for breakfast, I was a little more hungry than eating just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had leftover sweet Italian chicken sausages and half a jar of Kalamata olives in the fridge, so decided to make something using those items up. Recently, Trader Joe’s was sampling a new pasta, which is a yellow lentil and brown rice spaghetti. I thought it was so good, I decided I’d buy a package to have on hand. That’s just what I used to turn the chicken sausages and olives into a healthy dinner.

I set a pot of water to boil for the spaghetti. When the pasta had only a few minutes to go, I added two big handfuls of fresh spinach to the pot.

Meanwhile, I heated 1/4 cup of olive oil in a medium sized skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil was hot, I added two shallots that I minced and 2 large cloves of garlic that I minced, along with a 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. I actually did not add any salt to this dish, except to the pasta water. I thought there would be enough salt with the olives and, truthfully, I didn’t even miss added kosher salt – it was not missed at all. If you like to add salt to your dishes when cooking, by all means, please do. This is the first dish I’ve made where I chose not to add any salt.

 

I let this cook for just a minute or so before adding two chicken sausages that I had sliced into bite sized pieces. Next, I added 1/3 cup of pitted, Kalamata olives and let the sauce simmer while the pasta and spinach were cooking.

 

I added the cooked pasta and spinach directly from the pot into the skillet. I like to do this because it keeps my pasta water in the pot, should I need any to loosen up my sauce. As it turns out, I didn’t need any added pasta water.

 

I shredded a bit of rosemary asiago cheese into the skillet and mixed everything together.

This cheese is really, really good! Enjoy it with a glass of wine, shredded over pasta, or with a simple cracker. I buy it at Trader Joe’s.

This dish was so easy to throw together with just a few ingredients. When you’re looking for a quick, healthy dinner option, give this recipe a try. I think you’ll love it as much as I did!

Ingredients

6 ounces yellow lentil and brown rice spaghetti

2 sweet Italian chicken sausages, sliced in bite sized pieces

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, minced

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon kosher salt, for pasta water

1/4 cup olive oil

2-3 large handfuls fresh spinach

asiago rosemary cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta. Add spinach to the boiling water once there is only 3-5 minutes left to cook the spaghetti.
2. Heat olive oil. Add garlic, shallots and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute.
3. Add sliced chicken sausages and olives.
4. Add pasta and spinach to skillet, top with shredded asiago rosemary cheese and toss.
5. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and a little more cheese if desired when serving.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris