Spicy, Meaty, Everything Pasta

So there I was thinking to myself “what the hell should I have for dinner?”. Almost everything I had was frozen and, unfortunately, I didn’t realize that early enough in the day to let anything thaw. “Pasta!” I thought. Pasta is quick and easy, but then came the question of what to put IN the pasta. That was when it hit me – sausage. Sausage and bacon and whatever else I can find laying about.

The resulting meal was delicious and spicy. Lacking a proper name for it, I’m just going to call it Everything Pasta, and here’s how to make it.

Difficulty: Easy
Active Prep Time: About 30 minutes
Total Prep Time: About 30 minutes
Special Equipment: None
Serves: 4 – 5

Main Ingredients:

• 2 pre-cooked sausages (I used spicy chicken sausage)
• 5 slices bacon
• 1 shallot (but any onion will do)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno
• 1 package penne (can use any pasta, though)
• Bacon glaze (recipe below)
• 1 tablespoon white truffle oil
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes

Glaze Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 4 tablespoons mustard
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee
• 4 teaspoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

(Begin by making bacon glaze)

1. In a small bowl, whisk together honey, mustard, coffee, maple syrup, paprika, and cinnamon. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

(Move onto main prep)

2. Pre-heat oven to 400ºF and set a large pot of water to boil.

3. Lay bacon in a small baking pan lined with tin foil. Using a pastry brush, apply glaze to one side of the bacon. Cover with foil and weigh down using a second, smaller baking sheet or flat-bottomed oven safe pan.

4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and chop into small pieces.

5. While the bacon is in the oven, cook your pasta according to the package instructions.

6. While the bacon and pasta are cooking, slice your sausage, shallot, and garlic.

7. Pour olive oil into a large pan and heat over a medium flame.

8. Add sausage, shallot, and garlic to the pan. Fry until sausage is golden brown on both sides.

9. When pasta is finished, strain and then pour it back into the pot it cooked in. Turn on a very low flame to help evaporate excess moisture.

10. Pour sausage, shallot, garlic, chopped bacon, and diced jalapenos into the pot with the pasta and stir.

11. Add truffle oil (olive oil works as well), red pepper flakes, and Parmesan cheese, then stir.

12. Serve hot with garlic bread (In this case, I used my own homemade garlic rosemary Shar-Pei bread)