Italian Sausage, Spinach and Squash in a Garlic, Basil, and Crushed Red Pepper Sauce

Today I was craving sausage.. and garlic.. and cheese.. and all over Italian goodness, minus my arch-nemesis pasta (of course), and so this simple, nifty creation was born. I couldn’t decide whether to make a red meat sauce, or an Alfredo sauce, or a seasoned oil based sauce, but the latter prevailed. Perhaps in the future I will try these other possibilities, but for today I chose to use dried basil, crushed red pepper, garlic, and olive oil, and I am quite satisfied with the result!

Ingredients

• 1 package of Italian sausage (I used Hillshire Farm Hot & Spicy Italian Style Smoked Sausage)
• olive oil
• 5 cups of fresh spinach leaves
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 large yellow squash
• 2-3 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper (can use more if you want more of a “kick”)
• Parmesan cheese

Instructions

• Grill Italian sausage, cut up, and set aside.
• Saute fresh spinach leaves in olive oil and 1 clove of crushed garlic until leaves have wilted. Set aside.
• Cut up zucchini and yellow squash. Saute in olive oil, dried basil, red pepper, 1 clove of crushed garlic, and juices from the cooked spinach until tender.
• Add spinach and sausage. Simmer for an additional 2 minutes.
• Top with Parmesan Cheese