Easy Italian Sausage Pasta

The Little One prefers to eat the tangy Italian spaghetti over our Pinoy sweet spaghetti (where we use banana catsup as an ingredient!).  When we were in LA, this tomato-based pasta recipe has been one of her faves (she also loves her Papa's Adobo and Ginisang Sayote) that I always cook this for her almost every week.  (Now that we're back in the Philippines, I haven't cooked as much as I want.) 

This has become a fave of mine too because it is fast and easy to prepare.  The use of Italian sausage definitely gives additional flavor to the pasta sauce (flavors like Italian seasoning, garlic powder, fennel seeds, paprika)

For this pasta recipe, you will need:

Spaghetti noodles
Italian Sausage
Olive oil (preferably)
Garlic, chopped
Onion, chopped
A bottle of your favorite marinara sauce (a personal fave is the Barilla brand)
Cheddar cheese singles
Salt and Pepper
Sugar (optional) - Pinoy talaga! haha!

Let's start cooking . . .

Cook the pasta noodles according to its direction.

1. Remove the sausage meat from its casing and cook it until it turns brown. 

2. In the same pan, set aside the sausage and saute the garlic and onion.

3. Add the Marinara sauce, let it boil and simmer for a few minutes.

4.  Add the Cheddar slices, let it melt.  Season the sauce with
with salt, pepper and a little bit of sugar (according to your taste).
Stir the sauce and let it simmer for a at least 10 minutes.  I noticed
that simmering the sauce slowly and for a little bit longer
enhances the flavor of the sauce.

After tasting the sauce and you got that smile on your face which makes you say "Perfect!", 

toss in your cooked spaghetti noodles and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese

(which I didn't have when I cooked this pasta, haha!).

Buon Appetito!

Okay, it actually tastes better than it looks!
I am blaming this on a) the bad lighting or b) the Iphone's camera, Haha!

I keep this pasta dish simple for the Little One but feel free to add your favorite veggies like mushrooms, bell peppers or olives. . . and if you want a fancier pasta dish. . .throw in some fresh basil leaves!  Ooohhh and some toasted garlic bread on the side!  Yuuummm!  (Now I'm craving for some Italian food!)

If you're having a lazy weekend at home, and you plan to wear your PJs the whole day . . .but would love to eat some pasta,  you might just want to cook and eat at home.  

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend!  =)