I love quick, easy, tasty meals that I can get on the table quickly after a long day at work. It’s even better when the recipe only needs one pan to cook in. Cooking in one pan like this reminds me of making hamburger helper in college – except an updated, fresh, more flavorful, and homemade version. I love the spicy flavor, creamy sauce, and cheesy crust on the top.
In fact, this dish is so easy to make that we even make it out at our deer shack where we don’t have any running water. The fact that there is only one dish to clean up is great. I first saw the recipe here and tweaked it just a little. I loved this dish so much that I bought the America’s Test Kitchen, The Best Simple Recipes
Here’s what you need:
Start by slicing the sausage and dicing the onion.
Heat a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat and heat the olive oil. Add the sausage and onions.
Saute until the onions are soft and the sausage starts to brown, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes or so until fragrant.
Then the chicken broth, and Ro-Tel tomatoes – juice an all.
Now stir in the half and half.
Stir in the pasta.
Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the pasta is tender and the liquid is absorbed.
Now to finish it off, sprinkle on the monterey jack cheese and top with thinly sliced scallions.
Typically, I would broil this until some nice brown spots appear on the cheese. But the broiler at my deer shack (yes, I made and took all the pictures out at the shack just to prove how easy this is) is on the bottom of my stove and wouldn’t fit the handle of the skillet I was using. So you could also bake for about 5 minutes at 400 degrees until the cheese is hot and melted.
The leftovers of this are great for lunch at work the next day.
- Olive oil
- 1 – 13 oz rope of turkey polish kielbasa or smoke sausage, sliced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 29 oz chicken broth (2 – 14.5 oz cans)
- 1 – 10 oz can Rotel tomatoes, undrained
- ½ c fat free half and half
- 1 16 oz box Campanelle
- 2 c shredded monterrey Jack cheese
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium high heat. Add the sausage and onions and cook until the onions soften and the sausage begins to brown. About 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes until fragrant.
- Stir in the chicken broth, rotel tomatoes, and half and half. Add the pasta. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes until pasta is tender the liquid is mostly absorbed.
- Top with cheese and scallions. Broil for about 3-4 minutes until the cheese develops nice golden spots. Serve.
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