One of the glorious things about pasta is that it’s really quick and easy to cook. It takes a lot of practice to get amazing pasta, but you have to try almost as hard to screw it up completely (overcooking it is about the only sin). One of our favorites is extremely fast to prepare and can be adapted in a multitude of different ways. Like most Italian recipes it’s simple and leaves little scope for error.

Tastes even better than it looks!

The key is to prepare everything separately, and then bring it together into a tremendous crescendo of flavor and texture right at the last minute. In that way you’ll keep the sausages crispy, the pasta firm and the sauce just tangy enough.

Yummy pasta in a bowl!

This is so simple to cook, you could do it with your eyes shut, but I don’t suggest you try that in case you get burned. That’s not good.

The ingredients are readily available, as follows:

– Tomatoes (best to use Italian-style plum)
– Your favorite pasta sauce (Classico from Costco works really well)
– Your favorite vegan sausages (we like Tofurkey Italian Sausages)
– Mushrooms
– Garlic
– Fresh basil
– Pasta (duh!)
– Olive oil

Cook the pasta per the directions on the packet, and if I have to go step by step with how to cook pasta, you probably stumbled onto this blog while looking for a Disney site and are wondering who that strange guy in the banner above is. Now, go ask mommie how to use Google.

Anyway, moving on, the sausages should be sliced into halves or quarters (we use one sausage per serving) and cooked slowly in a toaster oven, broiler or grill. Cook them until they’re brown, but before they dry out and become crispy. I usually toast them in the oven for 5 minutes, less if they are cut into smaller slices.

Shred and wash the Kale greens, add some water and a little olive oil to a large pan, bring to a simmer and push in the greens a little at a time until they turn dark green and start to soften. Once they’re all a uniform green color, pop on the lid and set the pan aside for 5 minutes with the steam trapped within. This is the secret to tender leaves.

Next, sauté the garlic, olive oil and mushrooms together until the mushrooms darken and start to shrink. When that is happening, add the pasta sauce and simmer lightly for about 3 minutes so everything cooks together. Fully strain and then mix in the kale, add the shredded fresh basil, and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

the result now should look something like the above picture. When it looks like this, you’re ready to serve. The sausages can either be cut into slices and added now, or served on top or around the pasta if you prefer them a little crunchier.

I can’t tell you how fast this dish is to prepare, and how tasty it is to eat.