Pasta In Alfredo Sauce With Sausages and Peas

The boys love pasta and this is a new addition to their list of best-loved pasta sauces.  It's quite easy to make and  I like to serve it with short pasta shapes like macaroni, penne, spirals, bowtie etc.
This is a recipe I discovered in a magazine, which was advertising a sausage brand, so  I checked their website.
I used Gills sausages which I love, they are precooked flavored sausages. I used beef for this recipe but you can use any other kind of sausage that you like. I used peas as a vegetable because its something that's always stashed inside my freezer, I used a small zucchini which was beginning to look a little sad sitting inside my vegetable bin for too long.

If you are a Muslim living abroad, it is important to check if sausages are halal as most sausages usually contain pork and the casing can sometimes be made of pork intestine.

Serves 3-4

Recipe : Pasta in Alfredo Sausage with sausages and peas recipe adapted from Sausage Alfredo from www.sausagesosimple.com

1 pkt Gills beef Sausages ( that's 5  sausages in a packet)
2 cups elbow macaroni or penne pasta
1-2 cloves garlic ( I love the garlicky taste so I used 2 )
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
2 tbsp  olive oil
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
nice big pinch of ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese ( or pecorino), see note below
250 ml cream ( if you are using the can Nestle cream dilute 1/2 cup  cream with 1/2 cup milk )
1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley ( optional)
salt and pepper

Bring a pan of water to boil seasoned generously with salt. Once it starts to boil rapidly add the pasta and give a swirl using a wooden spoon( this stops the pasta from sticking, no need to add oil ) Some of us like to add oil but oil stops the sauce from sticking to the pasta so I have stopped using oil when cooking pasta.  Once the pasta is cooked through, drain, but reserve 1/3 of the cooking water to use while mixing with the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan. Remove the casing of the sausages, and fry them in the hot oil till they start to brown. Remove and cut into thick slices.

Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and heat the garlic, till it releases its aroma ( but don't burn them, there is nothing worse than burnt garlic. Add the cream and return the sausages, peas, pepper and chilli flakes and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the cheese stir in the pasta and the reserved cooking water and mix well over low heat for a minute or two. Taste add salt and more pepper and chilli flakes if necessary. Stir in parsley and serve.

NOTE : If you don't have parmesan cheese add a teaspoon(that's kudhi samsaa or saisamsaa in dhivehi) or two of kraft cheese spread to give a nice cheesy taste.