Fresh Tomato & Sausage Penne Pasta

A family wedding, a Saturday morning 5K, a very special birthday (see a selection of fun pics below recipe section) and a nail-biter win (WAR EAGLE!) filled this weekend to the brim. I offered to cook dinner Saturday evening following the wedding so that my mom could rest (she ended up being my sous chef anyway) and everyone else could watch the Auburn game. Don't worry, there's a smaller television set up in the kitchen as well. I did not go without! :) We had Fresh Tomato & Sausage Penne Pasta, apple pumpkin muffins and a huge salad filled with mixed greens, apples and walnuts.

In my opinion,

+

= the perfect combination of early fall flavors: savory sausage, apple, pumpkin and tomato.

DELICIOUS!

What I absolutely love about this pasta recipe (which was adapted from Cooking Light) is that you get to make your own tomato sauce from whole tomatoes. It's so easy, and tastes unbelievably fresh. You can use any type of tomato you prefer. These vine tomatoes were on sale at Whole Foods, so I grabbed them, but I used Roma tomatoes when I made this dish last week for my roommate. For enough to feed four, you'll need at least four medium sized red orbs.

After washing, cut them up into pieces.

And set aside for later.

In the meantime, boil 8 ounces of whole wheat pasta until cooked to your liking.

Chop half of an onion. I prefer yellow over white, but you can decide.

Ask the butcher to package up half a pound of Sweet Italian Sausage

(Side note: I'm not a big pork eater. When I first saw that this recipe called for sausage, I wrinkled my nose. One bite of the finished dish changed my opinion of this delicious, savory combination. Another perk is that sausage is surprisingly inexpensive. I certainly wouldn't recommend it every day but don't have issue with occasional usage.)

Decase the sausage and saute in olive oil with your onions over medium heat for about five minutes.


Here's the fun part: stir in your tomatoes and watch as it transforms into a delicious sauce.

Sprinkle in some chopped, fresh basil.

And stir.

Pour in the drained whole wheat pasta and mix. Plate then sprinkle with fresh Pecorino Romano and more basil.

For the muffins, visit this really great cooking blog. My pictorial version is below:

Add the mixed greens, apple and walnut salad, and you have a delicious fall feast. I had to multiply the pasta recipe 2xs to feed 10, and it yielded just the right amount.


Saturday a.m. could not have started off better. We had 30 members on Team Lakeshore at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and had a blast walking around downtown Birmingham. It was amazing to see over 16,000 participants raising support and honoring breast cancer survivors. I was also thrilled to have family see a little bit of what we do at Lakeshore; thanks for coming out Tews!


After the race, Elizabeth and I drove Karen home and changed clothes. We enjoyed Starbucks and then pedicures in honor of Elizabeth’s 13th birthday which was Sunday.

My cousin Christopher married his beautiful bride Melissa at 3 p.m. that afternoon. It was such a joy to celebrate with family!