Rotini with Sausage & Asparagus

I cooked with actual cream! Can you believe it?

I almost didn't make this recipe because of it, but I changed the regular sausage to chicken and the pasta to whole wheat so I figured a 1/2 cup cream shouldn't be too bad for an entire huge pasta dish. It was so yum and the fat was much appreciated as a special treat. You cant even see it that is how little there was. The leftovers where pretty fab as well

Rotini with Sausage and Asparagus

borrowed from The Olive Garden

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb Italian turkey or chicken sausage, sweet or hot, casing removed

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 lb asparagus, fresh

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 lb. dried whole wheat rotini pasta, cooked according to package directions (my kids did eat some plain pasta so it wasn't a whole pound that went in. )

2 Tbsp butter

Parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oil in non-stick sauté pan.

Add sausage.

While sausage is cooking, break up with spoon.

When sausage is completely cooked, drain fat.

Cut bottom 2” off asparagus stems (the inedible part), then cut remaining stem into 1” pieces.

Boil water in a separate pan for asparagus.

When it comes to a boil, put asparagus in water for 3 minutes once it returns to boil.

Drain and run cool water over it to stop cooking.

Combine asparagus and heavy cream.

Simmer 10-12 minutes over medium heat.

Add hot, drained pasta to asparagus cream sauce.

Add parmesan and butter.

Add cooked sausage and sauté until simmering.

Salt and pepper to taste.