Although, sometimes, occasionally, once in awhile, nearly never.... one does tire of the usual skillet of jarred spaghetti sauce with sliced Adell's sausage thrown in for good measure. I know, I know. It seemed impossible, but believe it. Take a moment for yourself, have a cleansing cry, but it is time, my friends, to move forward! Onward, compadres! Into the brave new world of pasta delights.
On that note, let's unveil a nice little treat I like to call "breakfast pasta." The inspiration: halfway into slicing the sausage, I decided to get fancy and dice it into tiny crosswise pieces rather than the usual round slices (cut on the BIAS!, for those so inclined to inquire about such information) before browning it in the skillet. This reminded me of breakfast sausage patties, the flat crispy kind relegated to the plates of those diners with the orange booth seats and waitresses named "Flo."
Being a lover not only of pasta but also of breakfast foods in all their many incarnations, I quickly adapted/improvised a carbonara sauce - eggs, parmesan cheese, and ground pepper scrambled together with a little milk, then tossed in with the hot pasta and sausage pieces while still hot. The result, dear friends, is a rich, creamy sauce that fills in all the holes. It heals what ails 'ya, is what I'm saying. A picture? Why of course.
I added a couple of torn basil leaves, fresh from my herb garden (a phrase which brings me unbelieveable amounts of joy) but that's really up to you, as well as the extra parmesan grated on top. You are free to ignore the to-do list from ages ago that the bowl is sitting on top of (lord knows I do!) and as a special favor, I ask...nay, implore you to ignore the Vanessa Carlton CD sitting there in the corner.On second thought, I will NOT apologize for my guilty pleasure!
(On third thought... how did that get there, anyways?)
Anyways, a recipe.
Breakfast pasta, for one
hot pasta - start this first, and when you're done with everything else it should be ready and drained and still hot
1 sausage, chopped first into slices, then into crosswise, smaller-than-bite-size pieces. Brown em' until nice and crispy
In a separate bowl, beat 1 egg, 1 tbsp milk, and maybe 2 or 3 tbsp of fresh grated parmesan cheese. Throw some ground pepper in there if it pleases you.
When the moment is right - pasta is still hot, sausage is crispy - toss everything together, stirring vigorously (there's a fun phrase!). The residual heat will be enough to cook the scrambled egg sauce without turning it into, well, scrambled eggs and pasta and sausage. (Which can, incidentally, be quite tasty when it's 9:45 and you've just spent the last 3 hours explaining the difference between "it's" and "its" and the intricacies of MLA format.)
Garnish as you like - more cheese? Basil? Sure! - and serve. As they say in Singing in the Rain, Good mornin'....good MORnin'!
