{"id":1485,"date":"2009-08-18T17:25:25","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T23:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/?p=1485"},"modified":"2009-08-18T19:51:42","modified_gmt":"2009-08-19T01:51:42","slug":"dinner-rush-zucchini-tomato-pasta-with-chicken-sausage-and-ricotta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/18\/dinner-rush-zucchini-tomato-pasta-with-chicken-sausage-and-ricotta\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinner Rush: Zucchini, Tomato Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Ricotta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Easy weeknight meal #2. \u00a0This one was quicker than last week&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/?p=1448\" target=\"_blank\">Mango Shrimp<\/a>, and cheaper! \u00a0If you choose to leave out the chicken sausage, then its an even more frugal (and also a vegetarian) dinner. \u00a0Nothing in the preparation of this dish is time consuming. \u00a0There is a little chopping and slicing to do, but nothing tedious&#8230;unless you consider slicing a couple garlic cloves to be tedious.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t often make vegetarian dishes when I cook for Ben and myself. \u00a0I am content with a dinner where mushrooms, black beans or artichokes are the &#8220;meat&#8221;. \u00a0Tofu? \u00a0Not yet, people. \u00a0I fear tofu. \u00a0Ben would prefer chicken, beef, turkey, etc. as a part of a balanced meal. \u00a0So, I made this pasta dish with chicken sausage. \u00a0Ben liked this addition, but I think it would have been better as a purely vegetarian pasta. \u00a0I love my husband, and I like him to be happy&#8230;so I will make this again with the chicken sausage or maybe prosciutto. \u00a0Ben can eat his meaty pasta, but I will set aside some pure, vegetable goodness for myself before adding the animal product. \u00a0Marriage is all about compromise!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1486\" title=\"pasta1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/pasta1.jpg?resize=500%2C360\" alt=\"pasta1\" width=\"500\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/pasta1.jpg?w=500 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/pasta1.jpg?resize=300%2C216 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>This meal came about by reading a Martha Stewart recipe for Penne alla Norma which sounded so good&#8230;until I reached the line that read&#8230;EGGPLANT&#8230;gasp&#8230;blech! \u00a0I hate eggplant. \u00a0If someone wants to convince me that it&#8217;s delicious, then fly me to your house and treat me to dinner featuring this outwardly beautifully purple vegtable with an slimy inner evil. \u00a0If you can convince me that it&#8217;s edible&#8230;I will retract the last few remarks and worship you.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I decided to replace the eggplant in the recipe with zucchini. \u00a0That was the first change I made to the original recipe, and some other changed followed; added the chicken sausage, used grape tomatoes, doubled the tomato paste, and the basil, and reserved the pasta water to make the dish saucier. \u00a0I also used whole wheat penne.<\/p>\n<p>I really like this pasta. \u00a0The vegetables were just tender, not too hard or too mushy. \u00a0The flavor of the sauce had a perfect level of spicy because of the red pepper, and it was light enough to be a good summer pasta. \u00a0A dollop of ricotta on top gave the pasta a nice amount of creaminess and was also a great complement to the spice. \u00a0You could sprinkle parmesan on top instead, but I really liked the refreshing ricotta.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Zucchini, Tomato Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Ricotta<\/h2>\n<p>Ingredients<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 pound whole wheat penne rigate<\/li>\n<li>Coarse salt and ground pepper<\/li>\n<li>4 tablespoons olive oil<\/li>\n<li>1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced<\/li>\n<li>4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper<\/li>\n<li>2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced into 1\/2 inch pieces<\/li>\n<li>1 container of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 pound chicken sausage, sliced into 1\/2 inch pieces<\/li>\n<li>4 tablespoons tomato paste<\/li>\n<li>1 cup torn fresh basil, plus more for garnish<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 cup ricotta cheese<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>DIRECTIONS<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain pasta and reserve 1 cup of pasta water; return to pot.<\/li>\n<li>Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper; cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Add zucchini to skillet; season generously with salt and pepper. Cover, and cook until zucchini is just tender, about 3 minutes.  Add chicken sausage, stir, then cover and let chicken warmed through, stirring occasionally, 4-5 minutes. Uncover; cook, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes more.<\/li>\n<li>Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and 1\/2 cup reserved pasta water to skillet; cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Toss sauce and basil with pasta; gently reheat if necessary. Top each serving with a spoonful of ricotta, and garnish with more basil.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:70px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/18\/dinner-rush-zucchini-tomato-pasta-with-chicken-sausage-and-ricotta\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"400\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Easy weeknight meal #2. \u00a0This one was quicker than last week&#8217;s Mango Shrimp, and cheaper! \u00a0If you choose to leave out the chicken sausage, then its an even more frugal (and also a vegetarian) dinner. \u00a0Nothing in the preparation of this dish is time consuming. \u00a0There is a little chopping and slicing to do, but [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p51jE-nX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1491,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions\/1491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}