Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pasta with Creamy Mushroom and Spinach Sauce













So originally I set out to make Giada's Rigatoni with Creamy Mushroom Sauce that I saw her make on TV today. However it morphed into something completely different and it was still delicious. I knew I wanted more veggies in it and that I wanted some kind of protein so I just started adding things to it. Plus I didn't want to run out for mascarpone cheese when I had cream cheese here... oh and no wine since I'm 8 months pregnant, no wine was open. So basically, it's a whole different recipe. But hers still looks really good. :). This one serves 4.

8 oz. whole wheat rotini or other short pasta, cooked al dente
3 links turkey sausage
1 shallot, diced
1 clove, garlic (crushed), I used my awesome Pampered Chef garlic press
5 oz. (1/2 a box) of frozen spinach, defrosted
1 package, about 8 oz., mushrooms sliced
5 oz. light cream cheese
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
Olive oil

Chop and brown the turkey sausage in cooking spray. Set aside. In the same pan, pour in a little olive oil and add in the shallots and garlic and cook 1-2 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add in the spinach and saute it all together another 2 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock and stir in the cream cheese. Cook until the cream cheese is melted and the sauce begins to thicken. Return the sausage to the pan and salt and pepper and top with the parmesan cheese. Stir in the pasta and coat it well with the sauce. Top it with more parm cheese if desired and eat it up!

1 comment:

Chef Aimee said...

LOL! I watched the SAME episode today! Yours looks a lot better. :) I love that you added spinach.