Rotini with Broccoli, Peppers, Spinach and Italian Sausage

2-3 Italian sausages (1/2 a lb or so)
1 bell pepper, cut into bite sized pieces
1 medium head of broccoli, cut into florets
2 cups spinach, ripped into pieces
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1-2 tbl fresh basil
1-2 tbl fresh oregano
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup diced onion
1/2 lb mostly cooked pasta
salt and pepper
(all these measurements are just guesses I'm afraid)

Crumble and brown the sausage in a large pan. Remove it from the pan to a paper towel lined plate, but leave a tbl or two in the pan. Brown the onions then add the garlic, saute for 30-40 seconds. Add the wine and scrape up all the brown bits. Simmer until the alcohol smell is gone then add the broth. Reduce until there's about 3/4 of a cup left. Add the herbs and pasta, stir to combine. Let cook until the pasta has absorbed most of the liquid, stirring frequently. Serve hot or cold.

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This is another one that doesn't have a real recipe. I actually only barely remember making this and didn't seem to write down what I did. But I found the pictures when I was organizing my photo folders the other day and remembered it being good so I thought I'd try to reconstruct it. So let's see what's what.

It clearly started with Italian sausage. I do a lot of pasta with Italian sausage. In fact as I'm writing this I have a belly full of pasta with Italian sausage, but with a tomato/cream sauce. But that's another post entirely. This one was visibly much lighter, I'm pretty sure the sauce was based on chicken broth and white wine. But I'm getting ahead of myself, after the sausage came the onion. I browned it up pretty well. Then a small mountain of garlic, I'm guessing three cloves. Nothing too surprising so far. Heh. I deglazed with the broth and wine. I've found you should always add the wine first and let the alcohol smell cook off before adding broth or tomatoes or whatever else you're adding. I remember using a lot of liquid and letting it reduce to get a stronger flavor. I'm going to guess a cup each of wine and broth, reduced down to about three quarters/half a cup. Then I added herbs, salt and pepper. I actually remember this was just oregano and basil. Fresh, though and lots of it. Then broccoli and I let it simmer for a minute to take the edge off it. My views on squishy vegetables are fairly well known, I believe, so I can only imagine the next few steps didn't take long. Then the spinach (which I think I tore into pieces), peppers and sausage. Add the pasta and some stirring. Now I'm pretty sure I let it sit on low heat, stirring every once in a while until the pasta had absorbed most of the liquid. That's why everything looks so distinct. Another thing I remember is it was good hot or cold, which is cool. It was a nice and light, you could use it as a side or main dish. You could also add anything you can think of to it. Some diced tomatoes would be good, you could cut back a bit on the broth to account for all the liquid. Or some asparagus or shredded zucchini. You could take out the sausage, use vegetable broth and have a good vegetarian thing. Toss some cream or bacon in to make it more rich. It's a concept not an absolute, take the idea and make it your own.

Oh, and I submitted this to this weeks BSI: Greens over at Girlichef. There's a ton of good stuff over there you should go check it out.