Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta

I spend a good bit of time looking at and reading about food, so it’s rare that I see a recipe and immediately think “I need to make this right this second.” When I find a recipe that gives me that feeling, well, I almost always give in. The day I saw a picture of this pasta on Pinterest, I decided it needed to go on the menu for that night. I don’t know what in the picture called to me, but I knew I had to make it right away.

This pasta isn’t remarkable or life changing, but it is darn good food. And you know what? That’s good enough for me. If it weren’t laden with cream and, you know, pasta, I would gladly eat it twice a week. This recipe is perfect for those nights that we don’t want to cook an involved meal but still want to eat something delicious (and not get takeout). I made a few changes to the original recipe – added an onion, used chicken sausage instead of ground chicken, added red pepper flakes, doubled the tomatoes, swapped fresh basil for the dried oregano – and now I’ve found my ultimate weeknight pasta dish. I think using chicken sausage instead of ground chicken is what really made this recipe shine. Since sausage already has so many seasonings in it, it can only enhance the flavor of final product. Just make sure you get something that would go well with the other ingredients. We’ve used sun-dried tomato and basil sausage and roasted red pepper and garlic sausage the times we’ve made this. We seriously can’t get enough of this pasta. Clara absolutely loves it, too, and we love watching her eat it (that may sound weird, but she’s so adorable all the time when she’s eating). This recipe makes a lot, way more than our little family of three needs, but the leftovers reheat exceptionally well and it’s easily halved if you’d rather go that route.