Space Pirate at work: Cooking Series: Easy to make recipes on a budget

After breakfast here's a quick lunch that's a fast comfort food that I've made for years. The meal takes between 15-20 minutes to make and you can have it for dinner.

For ingredients you'll need Ziti pasta and beef sausage. You can substitute with noodles or turkey sausage but I prefer this combination. Next is your favorite classic tomato based pasta sauce. Than optional choices are Mozzarella cheese and Pita bread. I say optional because you can still enjoy the meal without them and the extra calories for you health conscious folks. Lets start with some basics.

You'll be using high heat for the pasta but medium heat for the sausage. I recommend you start cooking both at the same so they can end at the same time. And obviously you'll need the following utensils.

Lunch: Ziti with Beef Sausage

First you'll need two cups of water in your pot turn the heat up to high and wait until the water starts boiling. Next add a pinch of salt to the pot. Then add a little bit of butter or olive oil by a little I mean 1/4 of a teaspoon of butter. Stir the boiling pot as the butter melts before you put in your pasta. Next scoop out 1 cup of pasta and than pour it into the pot. Lower your heat to medium heat and let it cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Make sure to sure the pasta so they don't stick together.

Now before you would have done all of that you need to prepare your sausages. I like to slice them into thick chunks and use 15 pieces for this meal. You can thin slice them also but I think a little thicker cut works better with the pasta. After you slice them season them with very little salt and pepper. I don't think you really need them but for some people the taste of the sausage can seem to be missing something without it. But you should use some powdered garlic with the sausages. Adding that to the sausages I find makes the whole meal taste better. You can mix in some tomato paste with the sausage and garlic to really get a red color to the sausages but its not a must have.

After you've prepared the sausages put your skillet onto medium heat. Than add 1 teaspoon of butter or olive oil to the skillet. Make sure to spread it around the skillet than put in your sausages. After you've put in your sausages lower the heat just a little bit bit. Not to low heat but not to medium either. The sausage cook very quickly if you leave the heat on medium. Cook one side for four minutes than turn it over. Cook the other side for four minutes. Now turn the sausages again to check that both sides have been cooked.

As you finish checking your sausages you should get the pasta ready to mix with the sausages. As you transfer the pasta makes sure to not transfer over water into the skillet. When you've finished transferring the noodles that when you pour little bit of the water into the skillet a little being 3 tablespoons. Now before your mix everything together take some parsely or oregano and spread over the pasta. Next take two tablespoons of your favorite pasta sauce and spread it onto the skillet. After you've done that now you stir everything together.

You don't need to turn up the heat but you do need to watch that little bit of water that you poured in. You can keep stirring it together for another four minutes. The best way that I've found to now that everything is cooked is by smell. Once you smell the pasta sauce and sausage mixed together in heat that's when you know the meal is ready to be served. So turn off the heat and pour your meal into a bowl. One trick I like to do is save on piece of pasta and use it to scoop out any remaining sauce on the skillet into the bowl.

Now while its hot you can add some grated parmesan cheese. Also take a garlic bread or a whole wheat pita bread in this case and toast it so its still soft but warm. That way you can use it to scoop out any sauce at the bottom of a bowl when your done. That's it. Quick meal comfortably done and easy to clean up. Enjoy.