Smoked Sausage Penne

One of my very favorite pasta dishes is a quick and easy sausage dish I shared a few years ago so when Hillshire asked if I wanted to experiment with their new smoked sausage, I thought it was time to get a little creative with one of our classic family recipes. We already use Hillshire lunchmeat and Kielbasa regularly but this was the first we’d tried of their smoked sausage (well, this dinner was the second… recipe testing happened a few nights earlier).

I love the bold flavor sausage gives to any dish and how easily this pasta dish comes together. Also, I’m a bit weird about uncooked meat sometimes so I do love that the sausage is already fully cooked and I’m just heating it up. Here’s a fun variation of the dish we have at least once a week around here:

What You’ll Need:

• 1 Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage
• 2 bell peppers (orange, red, or yellow)
• 1 large yellow onion
• olive oil
• whole grain penne 
• parmesan cheese

**optional addition: goat cheese (because I’m a sucker for anything with goat cheese)

What You’ll Do:

• Cut smoked sausage into 1/2 – 1 inch thick pieces. 
• Sautee chopped onions and sliced peppers with the smoked sausage in olive oil. Cook in skillet until the onions are fully cooked. The sausage should start to brown. 
• Cook pasta as directed on box. 
• Serve sausage mix over pasta and drizzle with olive oil.
• Sprinkle with a generous helping of parmesan cheese. 

#spon: I’m required to disclose a relationship between our site and Hillshire. This could include Hillshire providing us w/content, product, access or other forms of payment.