Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Jeanne's Special Pasta With Sausage and Spinach

Picky,Picky,Picky.  These are the three words that describe my struggle of getting my family to eat new foods.  Spinach has been on the "NO-NO" list for as long as I can remember.  My son has recently discovered the old Popeye cartoons and he is touted as the man who is "so strong, his muscles have muscles".  How did he get those muscles? By eating spinach, of course! My son is obsessed with getting big and strong, so I saw this as a selling point for getting him to eat spinach.  My husband went along for the ride and didn't give me any trouble about trying it.  My daughter, who is my best eater, didn't seem to mind what I was making.
This recipe is something my friend Jeanne whipped up for dinner one night when I went for a visit.  It is an easy dish and so yummy! I have tried my best to copy the recipe, but I may have changed a few things.  Anyhow, my husband, daughter and I LOVED it.  My son was a little fussier.  He kept picking out some of the spinach, saying he was not eating the "lettuce'".  I used my line about Popeye and he did take a few apprehensive bites. So, the jury is still out on whether or not he will eat spinach again, but we shall see. Also, I apologize for the blurry picture. I had to use my iPhone to take the picture since my camera was on the fritz.

Jeanne's Special Pasta With Sausage and Spinach (serves 4)
8 oz (1/2 box) of pasta, such as orechiette or fusilli (I actually did a mix of the two)
14 oz of crushed tomatoes with basil (Use enough to coat pasta and sausage to your liking)
3 large sweet Italian sausage (half the pack)
3 large hot Italian sausage (half the pack)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small white onion or half of a large onion, diced
1 bag of pre-washed baby spinach ( I used about half to 3/4 of the bag), shredded by hand
2-3 TBSP of olive oil, to coat saute pan

Directions
Boil water for pasta. Add sausage to heated pan and cook fully. In a saute pan, add shredded baby spinach,garlic and onion. Carefully stir the veggies in the saute pan until garlic and onions are nicely browned and spinach is cooked. Remove from heat and add to large serving bowl.  Strain cooked pasta and add to veggies. Mix thoroughly. When sausage is fully cooked, removed from pan and cut into bite sized pieces.  Add to veggie/pasta combination and mix.  Finally, add crushed tomatoes to pasta mix. Stir completely and enjoy.

2 comments:

We Are Not Martha said...

I LOVE that your son wouldn't eat spinach until seeing Popeye... That' awesome! But hopefully he'll keep it up! I pray that when I have kids, they're not super picky :x This dish looks awesome!

Sues

Jaime said...

Thanks, Sues. We even watched the episode where Popeye convinces Sweet Pea to eat spinach, but no dice. Back to square one!!!