I have a love-hate thing with sausage.
Being Italian, I grew up eating the stuff and few things compare to
sausage & peppers in marinara sauce over pasta. YUM. However,
being health and calorie conscious, sausage wrecks havoc on my
internal dietitian. And I hate how I feel after eating fatty foods,
no matter how much I enjoy eating it at the time. So last night I
made a low fat version, and this is what I did:
Put 1 pound of ground pork in a large
skillet (I ground it myself from a pork loin, so there was practically no fat).
Into a cup of water, add: ½ tsp of:
Sage, Savory, Marjoram, White pepper, Garlic, salt to taste, and 1
TBSP olive oil (You can also add some cayenne pepper for heat if
you're into that.)
Mix the spices with the olive oil and
water, mix well. Add to ground pork, stir well, and cook until no
longer pink. (The water will take the place of the fat and keep the
pork from clumping. It'll evaporate while the pork cooks. Magic, I tell you.)
While the pork is cooking...
Get water for pasta on to boil.
Slice: 1 onion and 2 bell peppers (I
used 1 green bell pepper, ½ of a red bell pepper, and ½ of a yellow
bell pepper just for fun) and toss it right in to the pork. The meat
was so lean there was nothing to drain, hooray!
Turn the heat to high and pour in 1 jar
of pasta sauce. Stir well, bring to a boil. When it boils, drop to a
simmer and cover.
Add pasta to the water and cook per
directions....we used 8 oz of whole wheat spaghetti.
Dinner can be served as soon as the
pasta is done.
Or it can continue to simmer while your husband
changes your toddler's diaper and you set the table (as in our case)
:) Enjoy!!