Pasta with Sausage and Peppers

Take that, Olive Garden!

For many years, I ordered the same dish at Olive Garden – Sausage and Peppers Rustica.  It was penne in red sauce with Italian sausage and red and green bell peppers.  And then, to my horror, they removed it from the menu without seeing fit to replace it with another dish that could pass as a substitute!

So back to trusty Chicken Parmesan I went.

But now…..

As summer temperatures has kept me from utilizing our oven, and as Jim’s work hours have kept him from manning the grill (at least on a weeknight), I’ve been having to use go-to recipes that require only the stovetop.

And this week, I hit jackpot.

It was supposed to just be “pasta,” which most of the time in our house is just some form of noodle and jarred Prego.  (Please, Lord, don’t let my Italian grandparents read this!)  Monday night, however, I decided to spice things up.

And wouldn’t you know it?  I put together the best dish of homemade pasta with sausage and peppers!  We have a bunch of sweet Italian sausage in our freezer – super great buy at Costco, if you’re interested – and I had a red bell pepper just about to turn, so I sliced and julienned and tossed those both into a pot of red sauce, and just let them simmer away on the stove until Jim was ready to head home for dinner.

I am SO bummed that I don’t have a picture to share – usually, I’m better about photographic evidence when I know I’m going to post a recipe – but you’ll forgive me this time, right?  It was SO yummy, we ate the whole meal plus all the leftovers so quickly, I never even had time to snap a shot!

So, if you’re a pasta-and-red-sauce kind of family like ours, make sure to take advantage of summer pepper produce, and try your own hand at this sweet, spicy sauce.  You won’t be disappointed.  (And if you are, invite me over: I’ll eat it!)