inside a bachelorette's kitchen #1: special spicy sausage and homemade spaghetti sauce on penne

My inspiration was some basic Italian sausage from Target that I've had in my freezer for weeks.  It wasn't even thawed but I decided to go with it.  Then I realized I have a few fresh tomatoes from the farmer's market, and of course LOTS of fresh basil from my garden.  I went for simple, and looked up the basic Italian Tomato Sauce recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook.  (This cookbook is a staple for any kitchen, whether run by a novice bachelorette or an experienced chef!)

I mixed some fresh tomatoes with some canned (Which I didn't even realize I had! cupboards can be so sneaky!), along with onion, bell pepper, garlic (always from cloves, never powder!), FRESH basil, oregano, salt and pepper.  So easy!  It simmered for 45 minutes.

Simmering tomatoes

Meanwhile, on to the sausage.  Sausage is probably my all-time favorite meat.  (Bacon is second, followed by turkey versions of those two.)  I really wanted extra-spicy sausage, so I literally just googled "how to make sausage spicy", and found Emeril's "Homemade Mild Italian Sausage" recipe.  Obviously I'm not going to go to the homemade extreme, but I just did a quick scan of the ingredients list for some inspiration.  Garlic, paprika, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, cayenne, anise, parsley, and red wine.  I had ALL of those things (except cayenne-- but I substituted Chili powder).  Basically I just put the thawed sausage in a big skillet and sprinkled all those things on it without really measuring... and let it all cook together.  It turned out AMAZING.  The red wine was my favorite part, and it all smelled sooooo good while it was cooking too.

A really old cabernet that had been open on top of the fridge for weeks, paprika, parlsey, chili powder, fennel seed & anise

The best spicy sausage ever

I fixed some whole grain penne to go along with it all, and put everything together on the plate, and sprinkled on a little parmesan.  I don't like to mix things like this together in serving bowls, especially when it's just me.  I like to mix it up on the plate.  I also made a simple Romaine salad with tomatoes and carrots with balsamic dressing.

It was soooo tasty... I would order this in a restaurant.  But, I don't have to because I can make it at home and save myself probably about $20!  And have two days' worth of leftovers to boot!  Spaghetti is such an easy go-to dinner, but it gets boring after awhile.  But THIS was DELICIOUS and I could probably eat it weekly without getting sick of it!  And I got to exercise a little creativity and use some things that were hiding in the cupboard.

Stay tuned for Tex-Mex Chicken Chili :)