Mushroom and Leek Pasta with Chicken Sausages and Prosciutto

Fall brings along with it shorter and colder days. It also brings with it a huge variety delicious warm soups, pastas, baked goods, roasts… you get the gist. For me, when I come home from an 8 hour work day and/or a trip to the gym, I want an extremely simple, delicious, warm bowl of pasta to satisfy my carb cravings. This pasta dish in particular does not include that many ingredients and holds so much flavour that I can assure you’ll go for a second plate.

Not only is it incredibly easy to make, its also light on the wallet. I get the majority of my pasta tips from one of my favourite chef’s: Mario Batali, cuz I’m basic and watched the Food channel religiously growing up. The guy has amazing tips on how to make fresh pasta, how to mix certain sauces with specific pastas, how to get the most flavour in a simple pasta dish, anything! I highly recommend watching a couple his shows on YouTube and adding in some of tips to your own cooking! The tip I incorporated into this dish was the process of taking out the pasta right before it is al dente, and finishing the cooking process in the sauce. This is most likely a super well known tip to the majority of pasta aficionado – but to me it was fresh and totally upped my pasta game!

Some substitutes if you don’t have all the ingredients available to you:

• I used a rosemary chicken sausage from my grocery store’s deli counter because I  wanted something lighter but you can definitely substitute it with any mild sausage or just omit it all together! Sausages are often one of the cheaper meats on sale – so this is definitely a great dish if you’re feeling like you wanna save on dinner!
• If you find buying a block of parmigiano reggiano to be difficult or pricey (it can be), what I used to do was just replace it with Grana Padano which is a much cheaper cheese and holds a similar flavour to the ultimate king of cheeses parmigiano reggiano.
• You can also definitely substitute the pasta to whatever you’d like/have in the pantry! I just felt like rigatoni today :).

Let’s get started!

INGREDIENTS for 2 servings:

• • 2 chicken sausages($2.33)
  • 3 Tbs olive oil ($0.20)
  • 2 cloves garlic ($0.04)
  • ½ pack of brown mushroom ($1.00)
  • 1 packed cup of spinach ($0.40)
  • ½ a leek ($0.50)
  • 50g prosciutto ($0.75)
  • ½ cup of parmigiano reggiano ($0.06)
  • 150g rigatoni pasta ($0.25)

  Total cost for 2 services: $5.53*

  Single serving for $2.76

  Serves 2, takes 20 Minutes

Compared to the $15-17 a plate at restaurants!

*DEPENDING THE COST OF THE INGREDIENTS IN YOUR AREA, THE COST MAY BE MORE OR LESS. I LIVE IN A FAIRLY INFLATED PART OF TOWN, SO CHANCES ARE YOUR COST WILL BE LESS.

 

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DIRECTIONS

Prepare your ingredients! Shop up basically everything except the spinach, mince the garlic, and cut the prosciutto into large slices. What I did was I cooked the sausages in the casings then sliced them after they cooked so they could keep their shape. Put a large pot of water on boil to prepare your pasta and salt it so it tastes “like the sea.”

Pour in the EVOO into a pan on medium heat, and put in the prosciutto. Once it crisps, add in the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms cook or “sweat”, you can move onto the next steps. This can take couple minutes.

Once the mushrooms cook, add in the leeks and the garlic and let it cook. Mix for a minute or two, then add in your sausages.

Once everything is well mixed, add in your spinach. The pasta is almost done! Pour in 2 ladles of the salted water into the pan, then drain your pasta. Next, add in the parm and add in salt & pepper to taste. Your final step is to add in the almost-al-dente pasta, and cook it in the pasta water infused with what you’ve made so far. This shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes.

 

Finished! Enjoy your super fast and super delicious plate of pasta 🙂

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