italian stir-fry

stir-frys are a common meal at my house. reasons why? oh because:

1. they are very quick to prepare/make

2. they are very filling

3. they are soooooo tasty!

4. they have your starch, veggies, and protein all in one.

5. they only dirty 2 pots.  (and for an entire meal, that's pretty good)

often we have asian stir-frys with soy sauce, sesame oil, bok choy, etc. but we also really like italian stir-frys.

i usually use a different type of pasta (so not linguine or any long type of pasta). i've found rigatoni or ziti works well, but you can use any type you have on hand.

the other great thing about stir-frys is that you can improvise pretty easily. if you don't have a particular vegetable, you can substitute anything you do have on hand.

for this stir-fry you will need:

3/4 pound of pasta, cooked according to box

2 hot italian sausages cut into small pieces

6 cloves of garlic, minced

 1 large handful of straight-leaved spinach, stems removed

1/2 cup chopped pepper (either red bell or green work really well)

1 TBS italian seasoning (or just make your own by combining dried basil, oregano, red pepper flakes (only a couple!), salt and pepper)

chicken broth

parmesan

directions:

while the water for the pasta is coming to a boil, prepare all your ingredients (chopping, mincing etc.)

put your pasta in to the boiling water with 1 TB. of salt.

next get you wok (or extra large frying pan) and heat 1 TB. of oil. as soon as it shimmers add your cut up sausage. once that is mostly cooked through, add the garlic and pepper. mix and cook 3 minutes.

when your pasta is done, add it to the wok and stir to combine. add italian seasoning. stir. add some chicken broth if  the pasta is sticking to the bottom of the pan. 

at last, add the spinach and mix. cover the wok/pan as best you can so the spinach can steam. 

cook approx. 2 minutes or until spinach is wilted.

dish into bowls and top with parmesan.

serves 2 hungry adults ;)

enjoy!

 rigatoni pasta, small sausage pieces, wilted spinach. you can see we mixed 2 different kinds of pasta this time since we had a little in another box to use up.

yum!