This was a tasty, and very quick meal to toss together on a weeknight. The red pepper provided just enough heat that it didn’t bother me, but added a ton of flavor (and allowed DH to add more to suit his spicier tastes).
It’s spicy enough that small kids probably won’t eat it, but if you had adventurous eaters you can go ahead and try – I don’t recommend making it without the red pepper at all, because it’ll be a bit bland that way.
The bonus is we basically have all these items in our pantry/freezer/fridge at any given time, so it’s a great meal for “uh oh – what do we eat tonight?”
To make this even quicker, I sliced up the sausage and cooked it over the weekend; then I just tossed it in the freezer until the night we needed it. It heated up within 5 minutes in the pan.
We’ll be having this again 
Fire Island Ziti
1 15oz can diced tomatoes, juice reserved
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces uncooked ziti
2 broccoli crowns cut into florets
1 pound Italian sausage links, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
– Cook ziti according to package directions, adding broccoli during the last 4 minutes.
– Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, cook sausage in oil until no longer pink. Add pepper flakes; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in tomatoes with the juice and heat through.
– Drain ziti mixture; toss with sausage mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.
