Sausage, Peppers & Pasta.....

I made up a dish several months ago. When I make up a dish, I gotta make it a few times before I know I have it right . It needs to taste the same and be good each and every time. Well, I have this one down. It doesn't have a name...so I call it Sausage, Peppers and Pasta because it has , well, sausage, peppers and pasta in it! But it also has garlic, onions and lots of good seasoning. I love this dish. It's easy and not too fattening as I like to use turkey sausage - but you can use any sausage you want. The key to the sausage is to use two kinds...I use sweet and hot. Makes each bite a little more interesting! The brown bits that coat the pan end up making the 'sauce' for the dish so it's very flavorful. My picutre doesn't do the color justice...should be nice a caramely.....lighting wasn't great. :-( Also, the sausages come 5 to a package...I use four of each kind for this recipe, but cook all of them, sending one of each in my husband's lunch the next day (if he doesn't eat them before dinner's ready!). If you end up really liking this recipe, you could always increase the pasta by a half a package or so and use all of the meat and have even more for leftovers. My family of three gets two dinners out of this recipe 'as is'. Anyway.... without further delay, here's my recipe for.....
Sausage, Peppers and Pasta ~
2 packages Italian turkey sausages - one sweet, one hot (should be three to 4 sausages in each package - use regular pork sausage if you like)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper - seeded, sliced into 1/4" strips and strips halved
1 green pepper - seeded, sliced inot 1/4" strips and strips halved
1 large yellow/sweet onion - halved and sliced fairly thin
3 cloves garlic - peeled and sliced very thinly
1 pound (16 oz. package) linguini
1/2 teaspon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme
2 teaspoons Pampered Chef Crushed Red Peppercorn & Garlic seasoning (if you don't have this, use a comparable spicy, red peppercorn seasoning from your local store's spice isle)
3/4 - 1 cup water
Fill a large pot with water and begin to heat the water for boiling the pasta so it boils super fast later - don't forget to salt the water. Drizzle olive oil in a large pan (chicken fryer size) and once heated, add sausages to pan and cook over medium heat. Turn sausages regularly to brown them evenly. They should get really nice and brown but not black - you want lots of yummy brown coloring on the bottom of the pan, but not burnt coloring. When sausages are almost done, crank heat up on your pot of water so it begins to boil. Once the sausages are done, remove them from the pan to a cutting board and - your water should be boiling by now, so add the pasta (broken in half) to the water and cook it acording to package directions. Put the sliced red & green peppers and onions into the sausage pan and stir them in the brown, yummy drippings. After about 2 minutes, add about 1/2 cup of water - this will begin to deglaze the pan and get all that sausage flavor into the veggies. At this time, add all of the dry seasonings and the sliced garlic. Stir frequently until veggies are cooked through - but not super soft - you don't want mushy veggies. They should be nice and brown from the deglazing process. Add more water to the pan if any brown bits remain stuck to the bottom of the pan. You want to have a 'sauce' from the drippings...you may add up to a cup or so of water, total. Some of this recipe is an 'eye' thing...so judge for yourself, this is not a 'dry' dish - but not 'soupy' either. Turn heat down on the veggies if the they progress too quickly before the pasta is done. Slice the sausage you set aside, into 1/4" slices - I cut mine at an angle. Add sausage slices back into veggies and stir to combine. Once pasta is done, use one of those 'claw' type tools or a pair of tongs to lift pasta from the pot and put it, 'claw-scoop-by'-claw-scoop' directly into the sausage/veggie pan (this allows a little pasta water to drip in with the pasta...a little more liquid at this point is just fine. Draining the pasta can leave it too dry and it can get sticky). Once all of the pasta has been transferred, use two large wooden spoons to toss and coat pasta into the veggies, sausage and 'sauce'. Your delicious dish is ready to eat! Serve it hot with a crispy, fresh salad of greens and some hot, crusty bread. Soooo good! Enjoy!