Betty's Spaghetti with Italian Sausage and Peppers Recipe

In this video, Betty demonstrates how to make a hearty and tasty dish, Spaghetti with Italian Sausage and Peppers. This dish is a large platter of spaghetti topped with a rich sauce of Italian Sausage and green and red bell peppers and onions. There is a sprinkling of Romano cheese and parsley to top it off.

Ingredients:

18-oz. hot Italian link sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices (You may use more or less sausage, and you may substitute mild inn place of the hot, if you like.)
2 green bell peppers, washed and cut into strips about 1-inch long
2 red bell peppers, washed and cut into strips about 1-inch long
2 medium onions, peeled and cut into chunks about 1-inch long
24-oz. jar of Italian sauce (I used Prego Traditional, but any Italian sauce will do.)
14-oz. jar of pizza sauce (Any pizza or Italian sauce will be fine.)
16-oz. spaghetti, cooked according to package directions (I cooked only 8 oz. spaghetti, and used only half of the sauce, freezing the remainder of the sauce for a pasta meal later.)
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese (You may use any type of Romano or Parmesan cheese, and you may use more or less than the 1/2 cup.)
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley, washed, dried, and snipped (You may use more or less than 1/3 cup.)

Instruction:

• Brown the 18-oz. sliced Italian sausage in a deep skillet over medium heat.
• Stir gently to brown, but do not stir vigorously, as this will crumble the sausage.)
• When done, remove sausage with a slotted spoon, and place on paper toweling to drain.
• Cook 2 chopped green peppers, 2 chopped red peppers, and 2 chopped onions in the pan drippings 5 to 6 minutes, or until tender.
• Add browned Italian sausage, 24-oz. Italian sauce, and 14-oz. pizza sauce.
• Simmer, uncovered, over low heat, stirring occasionally.
• Place cooked spaghetti in the bottom of a large platter.
• Spoon the sausage mixture over the spaghetti.
• Sprinkle with 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese and 1/3 cup snipped parsley. Serve immediately.

This dish is wonderful with Italian or French bread and a green salad. If you are looking for a easy, but impressive, dinner for your sweetheart on Valentine's day, this could be it! Enjoy!!! Happy Valentine's Day! --Betty :)

Italian Garden Lasagne

Ingredients:

About 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 large onions chopped
700g button mushrooms sliced
3 fat cloves garlic crushed
40g plain flour
3 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons caster sugar
700g frozen wholeleaf spinach thawed and drained
About 225g pre cooked lasagne

Sauce:
1.3 litres milk
1 bay leaf
a few black peppercorns
175g butter
115g plain flour
2 teaspoons dijon mustard

To finish:
350g mature cheddar grated

Method:

First infuse the milk for the sauce. Measure the milk into a pan add the bay leaf and peppercorns and bring slowly up to just below boiling point on the simmering plate. Cover and allow to infuse in the simmering oven for about 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick frying pan on the boiling plate fry the onion then add the mushrooms and garlic. Allow to cook for a few minutes then sprinkle with the flour and blend in. Mix in the tomatoes basil salt pepper and sugar and bring to the boil stirring for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat.

Now make the béchamel sauce.  Melt the butter in a pan on the simmering plate add the flour and stir in then gradually blend in the strained infused hot milk.  Bring to the boil stirring all the time until thickened. Season with salt pepper and mustard.

Spread one third of the tomato and mushroom mixture across the base of a shallow ovenproof dish about 380 x 300mm. Make sure that the spinach is really well drained through a colander or sieve. Season with salt and pepper. Use about a third of the spinach dotted in small rounds over the top. Cover with a third of the sauce and a little grated cheese.

Lay half the sheets of pasta across the dish and continue to layer up as before starting with the tomato mixture then the rest of the pasta and layer again finishing with the sauce and cheese.

Cook in the roasting oven on the grid shelf on the floor for about 35 to 40 minutes until the pasta is cooked and golden brown on top. If browning too much slide in the cold shelf on the second set of runners.
Serve with a green salad and French bread or Garlic bread if they are a hungry crowd.

It is important to season this vegetarian lasagne with its abundance of mushrooms and tomato very well. The lasagne pasta available now is mostly the dry precooked variety that you don't have to cook to soften first

Serves: 10