I knew I'd be making a rich, caloric Chocolate Lava Cake for Valentine's dessert so I needed to keep the dinner part fairly healthy. I had lean, mild Italian turkey sausages in the freezer so I searched for a simple pasta recipe, also keeping in mind that I didn't want to work too hard cooking! I happened upon this recipe from Cooking Light and it seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
I added onions, garlic, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes to the cooked sausage meat as well as dried oregano and basil, salt and pepper. I let that simmer then stirred in just a 1/4 cup of light sour cream. I tossed the sauce with cooked penne and some grated parmesan for a fast and tasty meal. I would definitely make this again!
In my original post from 2014 sharing the lava cakes (which I myself referenced to get the recipe!), I had noted that the cakes were very rich and perhaps smaller ramekins would be better. I ignored my own advice and still used the larger size because that's what the recipe calls for and I didn't want to mess around with the baking time and risk losing that decadent, oozy centre. After we ate dessert (which I couldn't finish), I wrote on the recipe itself "Angie, you cannot eat a larger serving! It is too sweet!" so I would remember and heed the warning next time the craving hits. My tastes have definitely changed and I found this recipe way too sweet. Hubby tempered the sugar with premium vanilla ice cream but I didn't want to add even more calories to an already over-budget dessert. Now, don't get me wrong...the Lava Cakes went over very well with daughter and boyfriend as well, who complimented my effort by saying they were almost identical to the fancy Warm Chocolate Melting Cake they'd recently enjoyed on their cruise!
I hope your Valentine's was just as sweet!
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