Warm Pasta Salad with Turkey Sausage

On first glace you would think this is a traditional pasta salad with a dressing of either mayonnaise or oil & vinegar, but you be wrong.....

It has all the traditional components of a pasta salad (the green vegetable, the mushrooms, the beans and the meat) but the dressing is just a warm, light sauce that coats the ingredients which don't over power them, so you taste them.

I am not a fan of turkey or chicken sausages but I thought I would give them a try this week.

First of all they are way over priced. I noticed anything relating to healthy or less fat items are 4x more expensive.

I was telling The Nudge that the senior citizens on a fixed income are never going to buy these products and they are the half of Americans that really needs to watch their sodium and cholesterol intakes (the other half being the overweight).

I guess to take advantage of their better nutrition you eat less of them and more of the beans and vegetables.

This dish does exactly that.

I used only 2 turkey sausages and made enough for 6 servings, easily.

Warm Pasta Salad with Turkey Sausage, Mushrooms, Rapini and White Beans
makes 6 - 1 cup servings
* 3/4 pound gemelli or farfalle pasta, cooked
* 2 turkey sausages cut into 1" julienne
* 2 cups, cooked rapini (or escarole)
* 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
* 1 can Navy Beans, drained and rinsed
* 1/3 cup low sodium chicken broth
* 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
* Pinch red pepper flakes
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil and saute mushrooms. When they brown add the sausages and garlic.
Saute until they brown and add red pepper flakes, broth and rapini.
Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Put in a large pasta bowl, sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Review: Light but very filling. Cooking the pasta and rapini last weekend made this dish came together in less then 30 minutes as I was in no mood to cook a complex recipe.

This might look like a small amount of ingredients, but the pasta swells 2x and it really makes a nice big bowl. I ended up with a quart of leftovers and we each had a substantial serving for dinner so 6 (1 cup) servings is very doable. Some whole wheat rolls or breadsticks will stuff their bellies well. Warming to the tummy on a cold night, I could add chicken broth for soup to eat all week for lunch.