Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pasta

During the past weekend, we finally got around to making a recipe we picked out the previous week. We didn't find the Italian sausage on our initial grocery store run, which is why we held off for a few days.

But the Italian flavors in Cooking Light's Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pasta is what drew us to this recipe.

Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pasta
3 medium bell peppers
8 ounces uncooked penne pasta
12 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon fresly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

First, preheat the broiler and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cut the green peppers in half and discard seeds and membranes. Place on sheet, skin sides up, and flatten with hand. Broil for 10 minutes.

Take out and place in zip-top bag immediately. Let stand 15 minutes. Then peel, discard skins and chop.


Cook the pasta; drain, but keep 1 cup of cooking liquid warm.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook sausage, which needs to be removed from casings, for about 8 minutes. Add bell peppers.


After a few minutes, move mixture to outside of pan and add tomato paste to middle; stir for about 1 minute. Then stir into sausage mixture with the reserved cooking liquid.


Cook 3 minutes and stir in black pepper and salt. Top with cheese.


The recipe was good, but we did have a couple of disappointments. First, we should have undercooked the pasta a bit knowing that it would get cooked a bit more at the end with the tomato paste and green peppers. Second, the green peppers also seemed a bit too cooked. We would suggest broiling as the recipe calls for, but instead add them at the end, just before the salt and pepper. And last, the tomato paste flavor could have been boosted a bit more.

However, the texture wasn't that bad after eating it the night we prepared it. When we ate the leftovers though, the texture just wasn't there. The flavors were still very good, but the texture provided nothing.

Altogether a bit of a disappointment, although the basis is there for a great meal.