Sweet Sausage with Squash Pasta Bake

 It may not be purdy, but it is sho 'nuff mighty tasty...

 

Today I am short on words. You are welcome. You can go right to the recipe. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that everything about this one has been said before, and that's okay.

This in not reinventing the wheel here folks. Every household has a recipe for a dish similar to this one so I am surely not gonna tell a tale and say 'Looky at what I came up with...'

This is just how I do it, my interpretation of it and maybe similar or perhaps far different to how you do it. I don't know, you'll just have to tell me.

Enjoy my version!


Sweet Sausage with Squash Pasta Bake

1/2 pound fettuccine
2 tablespoons butter
5 links Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
fresh basil, thyme and oregano leaves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup red wine
1 -26.5 oz can spaghetti sauce (I used Del Monte)
salt and pepper
2 large yellow squash, sliced
fresh mozzarella, 1/2-inch sliced
fresh basil for garnish if desired

Cook the fettuccine al dente in a large pot, drain well and place back in the pot along with the butter (this is one of the few times I do this). Toss fettuccine to coat well and place in a large oblong casserole dish, set aside.

Remove casings from sausage and cut into random size pieces no larger than bite-size, some smaller. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, or same pot, and add sausage. Cook until sausage is just brown on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper lined plate to drain. Add onion and bell pepper cooking until softened. Remove to paper lined plate to drain. Wipe out any grease from skillet.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Toss the garlic in the skillet and cook for a minute until fragrant moving it around to keep from burning. Add the wine and bring to a boil cooking for a couple of minutes. Stir in the herbs, red pepper flakes and bay leaves. Stir in the spaghetti sauce and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the squash, cover and simmer another couple of minutes to thicken just a bit.

Remove bay leaves if desired and add the cooked sausage, onion and bell pepper into the sauce mixture. Spoon this on top of the fettuccine. Use a fork to lift the fettuccine up in places to distribute the sauce underneath a bit. Add the slices of mozzarella and push into the fettuccine.

Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until hot. Remove foil and cook additionally if desired to brown any mozzarella. Sprinkle with chopped or torn basil leaves before serving.