Originally published on August 16, 2014
The other day we had a high of 14 degrees Celsius. On the 14th of August. It was also raining. Despite all of this, we had just gotten a new gas tank for our barbecue and I was dying to grill, char, and smoke something. So, neither rain nor chilly weather would stop me – off I went! I pretty much just threw as much onto the grill as I could so all it went, except for the actual pasta and the spaghetti sauce. The result was a pasta dish that reminded me of summertime in the middle of August.
Ingredients:
1 package bow tie pasta
1 can of spaghetti sauce (about 3 cups of homemade)
4 Italian sausages
1 cob of corn
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 green pepper, cut into chunks
1 small zucchini, cut into chunks
1 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
1.) Place the spaghetti sauce into a small pot, cover, and set over medium-low heat, allowing it to fully heat through.
2.) Place Italian sausages into a medium-sized pot and cover with water, making sure there is about 2 inches of water above the sausages. Place them on the stove over high heat and bring to a boil. Lower heat to low and allow sausages to simmer for about 10 minutes. I find this allows the sausages to fully cook through before placing them on the grill to get nice and charred. When sausages are done cooking, turn off heat and remove them from the water.
3.) Place the cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and green pepper in a grill tray. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Smear the cob of corn with the one tablespoon of butter and place in the grill tray.
4.) Heat an outdoor grill to medium heat. When hot, place the sausages on and let them cook for about 10 minutes, until their casing is nicely browned and charred. When they are finished, move them to the upper rack of the grill to get them further away from the heat.
5.) While the sausages are cooking, place the cob of corn right onto the grates. Lower the lid and let it cook for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally, until some of the kernels become nicely charred. When corn is finished cooking, place on the top rack with the sausages.
6.) While everything else is cooking, place the grill tray with the veggies inside onto the grill. Lower the lid and cook for about 5 minutes, turning the vegetables at least once, until they too start to become nicely charred and the tomatoes have just begun to split. When everything on the grill is finished cooking, place it all into the grill tray with the veggies and turn off the grill.
7.) Set a large pot of heavily salted water over high heat and bring to a rolling boil. When boiling, add bowtie pasta and cook for about 8 minutes, just until it’s al dante.
8.) Meanwhile, cut kernels off cob of corn (you can do this by standing it up on a cutting board on its flat end and running your knife down the cob) and add to the grill tray of veggies. Slice the sausages up on a diagonal and also add them to the veggies in the grill tray.
9.) When pasta is fully cooked, reserve about 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Drain pasta and place it back into its pot. Pour spaghetti sauce over top, with the reserved cooking water and mix to fully coat all the pasta with the sauce.
10.) Place pasta on individual plates or a big platter and then top with the sausage/veggie mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
11.) Serve and enjoy!