Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage

I had a stroke of inspiration when I took out the sausage this morning and here is the result. And now I am shamelessly putting it on my blog for you to try. If you do, please leave a comment and let me know how it turned out!

Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage

6 slices of bacon - roughly chopped (I used maple bacon) [optional]
2 tbsp olive oil
4 links of Italian sausage - casings removed (I used sweet sausage, but feel free to use the spicy stuff!)
1/2 tsp of chopped garlic
3 crowns of broccoli
1 lb of pasta (I used Trader Joe's Brown Rice Pasta in Ziti form, but feel free to use anything you have)
1/2 tsp of dried thyme or 1/2 tbsp of fresh thyme
Enough salt for the pasta water
Grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano to top the pasta

Cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water according to the directions.

In a saute pan (I used a French style saute pan - the kind that has a little bit of the sides) on medium low heat, add the bacon and cook it until the fat has render a bit (about 5 mins). If omitting the bacon, use olive oil instead. In the mean time, remove the casing from the sausage and stir it in the pan with the bacon. Add in the garlic. Continue to saute the mixture and add in the thyme.

When the pasta is almost done (about 7 mins in), put the broccoli in the water with the pasta to cook. Cook until the pasta is done. Use 1 cup of pasta water and put it in the sausage mixture, turn the heat up high to get it boiling. Drain the pasta and broccoli and add it into the sausage mixture. If your pan is not big enough, then after draining the pasta and broccoli, put the sausage mixture into the pasta pot instead.

Top the pasta with grated cheese and black pepper if you choose. Enjoy!

Note: This is a very quick dish, everything happens simultaneously. Feel free to improvise with different things, such as add in saute onions, peppers, etc. If you like garlic, put more in, if not, don't put it in at all! No thyme? No problem, add some oregano instead! Experiment and have fun!

Tomorrow, we will get back to the regular knitting programing.