Recipe of the Week – Shells and Sausage
April 29, 2008
(from www.emealsforyou.com/Cooking on a Budget/entree – Shells and Sausage)
Sausage and Shells
So we are walking around Findlay Market, the nation’s oldest outdoor farmers’ market, and I see a great basil plant for $1.25. I love to have fresh herbs growing in our yard and basil is one of those that I always plant, well my wife plants them, I cook I don’t plant. Now I am thinking, “what can we have to eat using some of this basil?”. Nudging around the kitchen I find a couple of sweet Italian sausages in the freezer and start the pot of water on the stove for some pasta. About 12 minutes later we are having this wonderful lunch that was both quick and cost effective.
For those of you operating on a tight budget you have to learn to use the ingredients found in your pantry and frig and avoid that trip to the store to pick up just a few things that turns out to be $65 worth of things you didn’t know you needed. Let’s look at the total cost for this lunch:
the basil – $1.25 and now I have it for the entire summer
1Tb oil – $?
2 sweet sausages – about $.75 (6 for $2.25 on sale)
1 medium onion – $.15
2 cloves garlic – $.10
1 can dices tomatoes – $1
.5 tsp hot pepper flakes – about $1.50 but you will have lots leftover
2 Tb grated cheese – $.25
1/2 lb pasta – $.50
Total = $5.50 for a great lunch or casual dinner. Add more pasta, there will be plenty of sauce and make this even more frugal feeding 4.
Shells and Sausage
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Cooking on a Budget |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 1 | lb | pasta, shells |
| 1 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 2 | large | sausage. sweet pork |
| 1 | medium | onions, diced |
| 2 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 1 | 14 oz. can | tomatoes, diced |
| 0.5 | tsp | pepper, hot flakes |
| 1 | pinch | salt to taste |
| 1 | Tb | basil, fresh |
| 2 | Tb | cheese, romano, grated |
Cook shells according to the instructions on the package. Remove sausage from the casings,; heat oil in a pan and add sausage. Break sausage into small pieces while sautéing. Add onion and garlic, cook until the onion is tender. Add tomatoes and cook for 4 minutes. Add cooked pasta and cook for 3 minutes more to allow the pasta to absorb the sauce. Add salt to taste. Remove to a platter, cut basil into strips and sprinkle it along with the cheese on top and serve.
Entry Filed under: Dinners. Tags: Family meals, emeals, thrifty meal planning, pasta recipe, pasta and sausage recipe, quick meal, cheap eats, thrifty recipe, kids favorite recipe.
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