Spicy Sausage Pasta Skillet #SundaySupper

It's time for Sunday Supper! It's Sunday and it's the only day of the week I'm committed to making dinner in my house and this week the theme is "On The Hunt".
This week's hosts are Stacy of Food Lust People Love and Tara of Noshing With the Nolands.

The Sunday Supper Crew are sharing recipes with ingredients that are hunted or foraged. This is the 21st century, so ingredients may or may not be extremely exotic but could include wild game like venison, boar or rabbit and vegetarian options like mushrooms, truffles, wild berries or wildflowers and greens. Being "on the hunt" can also mean a search for a special ingredient that you have to source online or hunt down at a specialty market.


This Sunday, I'm actually far, far away from home in Las Vegas competing at the World Food Championships. This is my second year competing and let me tell you: live cooking in front of strangers, using equipment you're not familiar, with ingredients you're not familiar, in a place you're not familiar is FUN! I've been strangely calm, cool and collected this whole week. I think I got the nerves out of my system somewhere in the plane over Arizona. I wish I could blog about having to forage and hunt for food to cook in this unfamiliar city, but that's another post for another time. I kind of wish I could have made this dish for the judges...


I'm always in the mood for specialty items that can't be found just anywhere. It makes me happy to look for an item so special and rare, only a select few can have. This week's special ingredient: Hot Italian Sausage from SausageWorks at Lowes Foods. Sausage itself isn't really exotic, but do you cure, smoke, stuff or age your own? Every time? Probably not.

This special sausage is called Fiery Italian and it doesn't taste like the classic Italian sausage. Described as "a hot and charming blend of pepper, spices and house-made hot Italian pork sausage", it has a perfect balance of spice interlaced with great chunks of fat throughout. SausageWorks is a new concept at all of the newly remodeled Lowes Foods grocery stores in the Southeastern U.S. Over two dozen different varieties of sausage have been made in-store over the past few months. Using local ingredients like sweet potatoes, beer, turkey, apples and even sweet tea and grape soda have made these sausages one-of-a-kind.

One of the best parts about the new Lowes Foods is that they let you sample EVERYTHING. There are people walking around with samples and they encourage you to eat and eat and eat and stay for a while. There's free wi-fi, one location even has a coffee bar. One trip and you won't want to leave. After sampling many, many pieces of about 8 different sausages, I chose the Fiery Italian, because it had the best flavor. I use traditional hot Italian sausage in my lasagna and sometimes there's nothing like a hot Italian that's been blistered over hot coals or a hot skillet and decorated with a little bit of American mustard on a French baguette. What an international trifecta! This time I'm using it to create this Spicy Sausage Pasta Skillet.


A beautiful pink tomato vodka sauce accented with the caramelized Fiery Italian Sausage rounds, sprinkled with fresh basil (that I grew myself!) simmers away while you boil and cook your pasta.


I use mini pasta shells or conchigliette for this dish because the sauce settles into the little cup of the shell and it soaks into the grooves of this popular conical noodle.  My favorite part: the pink tomato vodka sauce. Traditional vodka sauce just uses enough vodka and just enough cream to flavor the tomatoes and change the color of the sauce. I take it a step further add just a little bit more vodka, add red pepper flakes and cool it all down with a huge dollop of whole milk ricotta. I don't play when it comes to dairy. Go big or go home.



Don't forget to forage safely from the comfort of your phone, tablet or computer and check out all of the other fantastic Sunday Supper recipes!

Spread it on Thick

• Homemade Mascarpone from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Sugar Plum Fairy Jam from What Smells So Good?
• Porcini Compound Butter from Nosh My Way

Nibbles and Sides

• Baked Rice with Mushrooms from Basic N Delicious
• Brie Blackberry Bites from Family Foodie
• Foie Gras Bites from Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Miso Risotto from Crazy Foodie Stunts

The Main Event

• Bourbon Butter Venison Bites from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch
• Fennel Frond Pappardelle with Rabbit, Muscat, and Cream from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Korean-style Tripe from kimchi MOM
• Lapin au Cidre - Cider Braised Rabbit from Food Lust People Love
• Maple Bison Blueberry Burgers from Noshing With The Nolands
• Rabbit Braised with Kalamata Olives and Prunes from The Texan New Yorker
• Spicy Sausage Pasta Skillet from Nik Snacks
• Wild Venison Sausage Gravy from A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen
• Turkey, Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole from Recipes, Food and Cooking
• Wild Boar Pacific Rim Sliders from Peaceful Cooking

Sweet Treats

• Blueberry Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce from From the Bookshelf
• German Fruit and Nut Bars from Magnolia Days
• Grilled Bananas/Toast Topped with Chocolate and Cheese from Brunch with Joy
• Lemon Blueberry Scones from Killer Bunnies, Inc
• Raspberry Muffins from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow from Pies and Plots
• Ultimate Chewy Brownies from The Perfect Brownie
• Vanilla Poached Tamarillos from Manu's Menu
• Wild Blackberry Scones with Lemon Glaze from The Foodie Army Wife
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Topped Waffles from NinjaBaker.com

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on Twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7 p.m. ET.  Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board.

Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board. Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.