Recipe - Parmesan Penne with Broccoli and Kielbasa

Last night I threw together this recipe for a quick and easy supper. My sweet husband helped himself to no less than three servings of it, so I figured it was blog-worthy!

Ingredients:

- 1 package turkey kielbasa sausage
- finely shredded parmesan cheese
- ricotta cheese
- broccoli (amount is totally up to you)
- your preferred pasta
- dried italian seasonings (basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley)
- extra virgin olive oil
- butter

Directions:

1) Pre-heat a large skillet and add a drizzle of the olive oil. Get a small pot of water boiling on another burner.

2) Open your package of turkey kielbasa, and slice it on the bias. (This stuff is pre-cooked and I usually don't buy it, but it was BOGO at the store last week! I usually buy uncooked chicken or turkey sausages so if you have those on hand that's fine too - just cook them first, and then slice them and add back to the pan.) Add the sliced sausage to the pre-heated pan. Add ~2 tsp. of italian seasonings. Stir occasionally, but allow the sausage to brown a little bit.

3) Meanwhile, while sausage is browning, cook your pasta. I only used 1/2 a box of mini penne. You can use any pasta you like, but I like this one because the penne gets sauce in the middle of the noodle for some extra flavor, plus is's substantial enough to hold up to the sausage.

4) Steam a bag of broccoli. Confession: I just used one of the microwave steamer bags of broccoli because it's way easier than dirtying another pan. I always have this on hand because we love broccolil in our house.

5) Drain pasta. Add cooked pasta and broccoli directly to your pan with the sausage. Add the following ingredients:
- 2 heaping Tbsp parmesan cheese
- 2 heaping Tbsp ricotta cheese
- 2 Tbsp butter
- salt and pepper
- drizzle of olive oil

6) Mix everything together, pile your servings up in a bowl, and top with more parmesan cheese if you like. Enjoy!

Yield: 4-6 servings, depending on your portions.

Sorry for the instagram filter, I didn't remember to take a regular photo!

This recipe is great because it literally takes about 10 minutes to make from start to finish. Even if you used uncooked sausage it would still probably only be a 20 minute meal, so it's perfect for a worknight. You can add other veggies to it too if you like (I think next time I'll throw in some fresh spinach) or tweak it to your taste. It would also be good meatless (I like to refer to myself as a part-time vegetarian), but definitely might need more veggies to bulk it up.

Also, as a small aside - there is a small possibility that last night was the peak of our boring-married-coupledom. There is a slight chance that I prepared and ate supper before 5pm because I was tired and wanted to go to bed really early. That might have happened. Maybe. I'll never tell.