How to Make Italian Sausage and Spinach Saute

This quick and easy spinach and sausage saute recipe makes a savory Italian appetizer for four people if served with Italian bread, focaccia bread or imported Italian breadsticks. You can also serve over ziti pasta by adding chicken stock for a delicious under 30 minute Italian meal.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 4 whole spicy Italian sausage links
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 large bag cleaned fresh spinach or mixture of spinach and arugula greens
• 3-4 cloves garlic chopped
• 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken stock (if serving over pasta)
• crushed red pepper flakes
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Romano cheese grated

1. 
   Italian sausage

   Poach the Italian sausage in water or chicken stock until cooked completely through. For a spicier dinner choose hot Italian sausage. Let cool and slice into eight pieces per link. This step can be done up to a day ahead to save time.

2. 
   Serve with Italian chianti

   Heat olive oil over medium high heat and saute sausage slices until brown. Add garlic and saute quickly, add spinach, crushed red pepper to taste, and saute until greens are wilted. Add wine and cook until reduced by half. To make a pasta sauce add 1 cup of hot chicken stock at this point and mix well. Do not overcook the spinach or arugula greens they should still be bright green. This is a very quick saute dish so make sure your pasta is cooked and waiting when you start the saute.

3. 
   Italian breadsticks

   Take off the heat and season with salt and pepper. Top with Romano or Parmesan cheese. If serving over pasta immediately toss with hot ziti pasta and serve, topping the hot pasta with additional grated cheese. If serving as an appetizer serve with crusty Italian bread or imported Italian bread sticks.

Tips & Warnings

• Arugula is a spicier green that adds a lot of flavor to this dish. Try substituting this green for up to half of the spinach.
• Another delicious green is broccoli rabe, this is usually available in gourmet or farmer's markets seasonally. Or if you're lucky enough you can find it in an Italian produce market year round.
• Be careful when adding crushed red pepper some people are very sensitive to spicy food. Additional crushed red pepper flakes can be passed around for people who like spicy food.

Resources

• Imported Italian Breadsticks
• Organic olive oil-extra virgin
• Caponata
• Rustic Italian Cooking
• Microplane Parmesan Grater

[grammastacie]

on 11/19/2009 great recipe! 5*

[kims3003]

on 11/16/2009 sounds wonderful - like the photos Great job

[sonni57]

on 5/31/2009 Good spinach recipe sound easy and healthy too.