Earl Cooks Penne Alfredo with Smoked Sausage & Brie

This recipe really created itself. I always have the ingredients on hand, and it requires little time and less talent than most weeknight dinners...but it is SO good! It only has 4 ingredients and can be made in a single pan!

 
The ingredients are: smoked sausage, penne pasta, Alfredo sauce and cheese (I used brie, but mozzarella would work well too). You could also use another another type of pasta, elbows or bow ties or shells would be nice choices. My choice of Great Value Classic Alfredo is for 2 reasons. First and foremost is flavor. I find that of the bottled sauces, it tastes best, plus it has less fat and it is less expensive. You may have a favorite, and I suggest you go with that. As for the brie, since you are not eating it plain, so the double cream is not needed, but you will want to remove the rind because it doesn't melt well. I just snack on it!

The most labor intensive part of the whole process is cutting the smoked sausage into bite-size pieces. Simply cut it in half then cut the curved sections off for ease of cutting. My wife (a.k.a. "Turkey") likes small pieces for easy combining with pasta on the fork, so I cut the sausage in half, lengthwise, then again, and finally, I slice the quartered rope into a small dice. I also slightly brown the sausage, because she prefers the flavor and texture of smoked sausage when browned, but since the smoked sausage I used is fully cooked, you can skip this step. 

In a large skillet, I add sausage and lightly brown and warm it.

I then add the sauce to the sausage

To the skillet, I add the pasta, (partially cooked so it will finish in the sauce, absorbing flavor as it finishes).

Lastly, the brie. It melts pretty quickly so stir it in thoroughly.

 Suggestions:
 Add some spice to your life with Italian, or other seasonings of your choice. If you are just two (as we are) you can also use a new product I recently discovered on my store shelves—Ready Pasta. Much like Ready Rice, it is mostly cooked and packaged so it only takes 60 seconds in the microwave to finish off!