Another crazy busy week night and I’m starving. Luckily, I had taken some sun dried tomato chicken sausage (free range chicken of course) out of the freezer recently. Now what to do with it?

I found some whole wheat bow tie pasta in the pantry and diced tomatoes. That’s a start! Of course I never made it to the store this weekend for fresh veggies. I’m really missing the local produce stands to quick stop at on my way home from work.

While digging through the fridge I found a jar of leftover sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and capers. I know, who keeps that stuff laying around in the fridge?  I like to buy that stuff in bulk so I always have a meal to throw together.  Of course fresh veggies would work wonderfully in this dish. Fresh peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, just about anything!  Oh well, next time.

Considering the circumstances, the dish came out great!

Sun dried tomatoes contain many antioxidants that help fight many types of cancers and also help boost immunity. Just one cup contains 9 percent of the daily value for vitamin A and 35 percent of the daily value for vitamin C.  Click here to learn more about the benefits of sun dried tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 package Italian chicken or turkey sausage (or no meat at all!) This recipe would also work with ground meat or shrimp.
• 1/2 to 3/4 pound of pasta, cooked (I used bow tie)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 onion, diced1 large roasted red pepper, sliced into strips
• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced into thin strips
• 1/4 cup capers
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 1/2 jar pasta sauce
• parmesan or mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cook sausage in a pan with a little bit of water until no longer pink and cooked through. Drain water and saute until nice and brown. Cut into bite size pieces and set aside.
3. Cook pasta according to package directions. Set aside.
4. Heat olive oil in cast iron skillet (or a skillet you can put in the oven) over medium high heat. If you do not have one, cook in a regular skillet and transfer to a baking dish.
5. Saute onion for a few minutes. Add roasted red pepper, sun dried tomatoes, capers, and garlic. Saute for a few minutes until garlic is cooked.
6. Lower skillet heat to medium low. Add can of diced tomatoes and pasta sauce. Cook until nice and bubbly.
7. Add cooked pasta and sausage and stir.
8. Top with cheese and put the skillet right into the oven, or transfer to baking dish and bake for about 15-20 minutes.
   
   Nutritional facts coming soon.  I Promise. 🙂

Enjoy!