Baked Chicken Sausage Pasta with Spicy Tomato Cream Sauce

This dish is so easy and simple that I threw it together in under 30 minutes while I was also making buttercream and frosting my cake for decorating class tonight. It's also a great make-ahead meal, as I prepared it all the way up to the final baking, put the lid on and stuck it in my fridge with directions for when my husband got home and ran off to class. Pretty good, huh? Well you can do the same thing. Go on, take all the credit... you deserve it!


Baked Chicken Sausage Pasta with Spicy Tomato Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
1 box pasta of choice (I used Ronzoni Smart Taste Rotini)
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
4 links of chicken sausage with spinach, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes, crushed with back of spoon
1/2 tsp salt
splash heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. flat leaf parsley, chopped fine
1 c. fontina cheese, grated
1/2 c. garlic and her bread crumbs

Directions:
-In large Dutch oven of lightly salted water, cook pasta according to directions to just al dente (still firm).
-Transfer pasta to large colander and set aside to drain.
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-In Dutch oven, now empty, add olive oil and bring up to almost smoking.
-Add chicken sausage, and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 5 minutes.
-Add garlic and crushed pepper and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
-Add diced tomatoes and salt and stir to scrape up all browned bits
-Bring to boil and reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
-Add cream, stir to combine, add pasta and parsley, toss for one minute.
-Sprinkle on cheese and then bread crumbs and bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until bubbly.