PASTA WITH SAUSAGE, PEAS AND MUSHROOMS - FOR TWO

Here's another repost from Latelife Recipes:

Adapted from recipe in Pasta for Pennies in the May 2012 issue of Country Living, I made this for our supper this evening. It was very good, if I do say so myself. I think you could use two sausages if you care to, though one was enough for us. The recipe said to mix the meat mixture with the pasta, but I served it, as you see in the picture, with the mix on top of the pasta.

1 large Italian sweet sausage, casing removed, meat broken up

2 cups – more or less according to appetites

4 or 5 white mushrooms, sliced

2 Tbsp. white wine

½ tsp. minced garlic
½ tsp. dried thyme
½ cup fresh or frozen peas
2 Tbsp. milk or ½ n ½
1 Tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet over medium heat, sauté the sausage meat, breaking it up to have nice crumbly bits. Sauté until it is nicely browned and remove and set aside the drained sausage.

Meanwhile, prepare the pasta according to the package directions. Shells work very well, though the original recipe was with rigatoni. When the pasta is done, reserve about 2 tbsp. of the cooking water and drain the pasta and set it aside.

Brown the sliced mushrooms in the sausage fat, adding some olive oil if needed.

Deglaze the pan with the wine – water, if you prefer, scraping up all the burned bits. Add the garlic, thyme, peas, reserved meat, to the pan and stir it up.

Add the reserved pasta water, milk, and butter, and simmer it all until the mixture thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add reserved pasta to the pan, stir and heat through. Serve