Tomato Alfredo Penne with Sausage

This dish started out as a quick throw-together idea, which turned into a family hit. Originally, I was going to use the first three ingredients and call it a day. But then I saw the Alfredo sauce sitting in my cupboard and thought, "Hmm. What would happen if I added the this?"

I decided to give it a try, only I didn't stop there. The garlic was a given, since I use that for all of my Italian recipes. The Merlot and the fresh tomato were afterthoughts that gave this dish a little extra zing.

Ingredients

Blend the pasta into the sauce and serve.

2 packages of Italian sausage

1 lb Penne pasta (tubed with diagonal cuts on both ends)

1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce

1 jar of Alfredo sauce

1 whole fresh tomato, diced

1/2 cup Merlot wine

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp Oregano

1 1/2 tsp Basil

Preparation

Remove the skins from the sausage and break the meat up into bite-sized pieces. Cook thoroughly in a large pan (preferably deep) and drain on paper towel. Wipe any excess grease out of the pan.

Dice up the tomato. Put the tomato and the sausage into the pan. Add the sauces, garlic, spices and Merlot. Give the mixture a thorough stirring. Cook the mixture it starts to boil, and then simmer (covered).

Cook the pasta, add it to the sausage mixture and serve.

Makes 8 servings