a little bit of spice

I should first preface this by saying that I, Nate Staley, love spicy food.  Actually, I live for spicy food.  While most of my friends look for a good Chinese dish on the nights that they want to eat out, I’m always looking for a good Mexican or Indian establishment.  I want spicy food whenever I can get it.  A lot of this side of me – my mother says anyway – comes from my upbringing in Texas.  While she likes to tell me that during her pregnancy with me all she would eat was the spiciest foods she could find, which in Texas can be found on every street corner, I can still attribute my affinity for spice to the years of spicy cuisine in which I indulged myself afterward.  I’ve still to find a good Mexican restaurant in the midwest like the ones that were available everywhere in Dallas.  What people like to think of as spicy in the midwest pales in comparison to even the mildest of salsas in a good Mexican restaurant in Texas.  But I digress.

As you might have imagined what this is leading up to, the mood for something spicy struck me the other night.  Being a college student, it is not often that I get the chance to indulge myself in a good spicy meal, or a good meal of any kind for that matter.  My diet most often consists of Spaghetti-O’s, Wendy’s or a grilled cheese sandwich.  When I came across Al Dente’s Red Chili Fettuccine several nights back, ideas started rolling through my head about what kind of pasta dish I might be able to make.  After all, a cheap, delicious, spicy pasta is irresistable to a college student such as myself.  Being a fan of grilling, I decided to get myself some type of spicy sausage to grill up, slice up and throw in the pasta, and ended up choosing chorizo to go along with my affinity for mexican spices.  In the end I made up quite a delicious pasta dish that was cheap to make and satisfied my need for putting a bit of sweat on the brow.

Pasta Recipe:

1 Bag of Al Dente Red Chili Fettuccine

3 Johnsonville Chorizo links grilled and sliced

1  jar Monique’s Rustic Roasted Garlic Sauce

1 red bell pepper, sliced

8 oz. mushrooms

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Saute the mushrooms and sweet red pepper in the olive oil. Grill your sausages and slice. (If you are not grilling the sausages, you can slice and cook in a skillet on the stove top.) Add Monique’s Rustic Roasted Garlic Sauce to mushrooms, sweet red pepper and sausages. Cook pasta Al Dente Pasta for 3 minutes in boiling water and serve with sauce.  Garnish with Parmesan Cheese.

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