Spicy Sausage Pasta

I’m back! For those who don’t follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I was gone all week at a wedding in Las Vegas. I apologize for my absence, but I had an amazing time and now I’m home and excited get cooking!

This was a great recipe to come back to after my trip– warm, spicy, creamy, cheesy and comforting. No one will believe this is a lightened up recipe! Each serving is chock full of smoky sausage, creamy sauce, spicy tomatoes and chiles and hearty pasta. Not only is this dish packed with flavor, but it comes together super fast. You don’t even have to pre-cook the pasta! It also doesn’t dirty a lot of dishes (which is a real bonus to me because I hate doing dishes). The sauce has the perfect spicy kick, but if you want it to be milder, you could use mild Ro-Tel and cheddar cheese instead of pepper jack.

This is the perfect weeknight meal. It’s fast, easy, flavorful, comforting and Weight Watchers and calorie counter friendly. You may want to keep the ingredients on hand because this could become your new go-to dish!

Spicy Sausage Pasta
Source: adapted from Kevin & Amanda via America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 t extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
13 oz Smoked Turkey Sausage, sliced (I used Hillshire Farms)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 ¼ cups low sodium fat free chicken broth
10 oz can Ro-Tel tomatoes & green chiles, original
½ cup fat free half and half
½ t salt
½ t black pepper
10 oz uncooked wheat pasta (I used farfalle/bowties)
4 oz reduced fat Pepper jack cheese, shredded (I used Cabot 50%)
2 medium scallions, diced

Directions:
1.    In a large skillet or sauté pan (oven-safe if you have it – I don’t!), add the olive oil and bring over medium heat. Add the onions and sausage to the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes until sausage is browned and onions are tender. Add the garlic and stir. Continue to cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.
2.    Add the broth, Ro-Tel, half and half, salt and pepper and mix together. Add the uncooked pasta and stir together until the liquid covers the pasta. Cover the skillet and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and keep covered. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the pasta is cooked.
3.    Set your oven to broil and make sure one of your oven racks is in the top 1/3 of the oven. Remove the pan from the heat and mix in half of the shredded cheese. If your skillet is oven-safe, you may continue to use it in the following steps. If it isn’t (mine isn’t) or you aren’t sure, transfer the pasta into a baking dish. I used a 7x11 dish but you can certainly use a 9x13.
4.    Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over the top of the pasta and follow it with the sliced scallions. Place the dish in the top 1/3 of the oven and broil for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown (keep checking because broiling can happen really fast!).

Yields 6 (1 ¼ cup) servings. WW P+:  9 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Nutrition Information per serving from myfitnesspal.com: 366 calories, 42 g carbs, 11 g fat, 25 g protein, 4 g fiber