Weeknight Dinners: Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta

Today I am thrilled to be teaming up once again with a slew of fabulous bloggers for the Ultimate Recipe Challenge.  We were challenged to all use the same ingredient to create a recipe.  This month, it was pasta!  Thank you, Kim Six for hosting this event.

I am sharing a recipe that my sister-in-law makes but have changed it just slightly.  My kids love this pasta and that alone means it is in our meal rotation.  It has a surprisingly sweet taste with the pasta and the crunch from the pine nuts adds texture to it.

I find that we reach for ground beef a lot for our pasta dishes, so adding sausage instead is a nice alternative.

Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Italian Sausage

1/2 cup raisins (I used dried cranberries)

Small bag of Pine Nuts

1 box of Tri-Color Pasta

3-5 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Instructions:

1. Boil noodles in water and drain (follow directions on box.)

2. Brown sausage in large skillet and drain.

3. Add pine nuts and raisins (cranberries) to browned sausage and cook until nuts brown and cranberries plump up.

4. Add pasta and olive oil to skillet, tossing mixture until coated.

5. Serve and enjoy!

To see the other yummy pasta recipes click below.

To life feeling like home!

XO,