How to cook when its 100°

This is a super easy meal to put together when it's just too darned hot to cook.  We're had over 40 days of temperatures over 100° so tonight I pulled out one of my standby recipes.  I keep the ingredients on hand for this because I can throw it together and have it on the table in about 30 minutes and it will feed a lot of people.  For just the two of us, I freeze containers of it to heat later.


Penne Pasta with Marinara Sauce

1 jar Bertoli Marinara Sauce
1/2 of a 14.5 oz. box of Ronzoni Penne Rigate
Johnsonville Italian sausage patties
Italian seasoning
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese and/or Mozzarella cheese


I cook the sausage according to the package instructions, then crumble it up.
Add the jar of marinara sauce and mix well.
I add about 1 tsp. of Italian seasoning to the mixture and about 1/3 cup of water
Cook the pasta until just al dente, drain well and add to sausage mixture.
Stir in the freshly grated cheese.
Put mixture into a microwave safe dish and continue cooking it in the microwave
until the pasta is completely done.

With some crusty garlic bread, salad and a good house red wine, you'll have a meal you'd be proud to serve to anyone!