Creamy Jambalaya Pasta

It's been a crazy couple of days in Hoboken! On Tuesday around midnight, a car flipped over just outside my apartment. How does that happen with stop signs every other block and a speed limit of 20 mph!? Thankfully the driver and passenger only sustained minor injuries.  I imagine there was more extensive damage to the cars parked nearby.  Personally, I suffered from a lack of sleep due to the numerous ambulance, fire truck, and police car sirens blaring outside the apartment for an hour.  KK somehow slept through the whole thing.

Besides being a bit tired on Wednesday, things were calm in Hoboken.  To spice things up, I repeated this Creamy Jambalaya Pasta.  Last time I made it, I used light cream for the sauce, but this time I used the leftover evaporated milk from the One Pot Thai Chicken Pasta.  Although it tasted the same, the sauce didn't come together as smoothly as it did with light cream.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of white wine, so we enjoyed the rest of the bottle with dinner: a 2009 Flygirl White Vineyard Salute from Airfield Estates (60% Viognier, 18% Chardonnay, 15% Gewürztraminer, 8% Roussanne).  This worked well, but it would also pair nicely with Chenin Blanc or Riesling.

Chaos returned on Thursday when there were TWO water main breaks in town.  Hoboken was without water for most of Thursday.  Thankfully KK was out watching the March Madness games, and I had dinner and drinks in the city at Dos Caminos.  There's still have a boil advisory today, so I think we'll stick with leftovers for dinner this evening!

Creamy Jambalaya Pasta
Adapted from Plain Chicken
Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

8 oz. pasta, such as Farfalle or Ziti
14 oz. spicy andouille sausage, sliced into bite-size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 cup light cream (or half & half, heavy cream, or evaporated milk)
Chopped parsley
Parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and brown sausage over medium-high heat, about 5-7 minutes.

3. Once sausage is browned, reduce heat to medium, add onion and saute for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.  Add white wine to skillet, and let wine reduce by half, about 2 minutes.

4. Stir in Cajun seasoning, paprika, salt, pepper and tomato sauce. Add cream and heat to almost bubbling, then reduce heat to medium-low. Allow the cream mixture to reduce by half, about 5 minutes.

5. Drain pasta and add to skillet. Top with parsley and grated Parmesan.