A one-pot dish to welcome fall

With kids back in school (in some form or another) and many parents stillworking from home, it’s a perfect time to add a greattasting, quick-cooking meal to your recipe rotation.

In this one-pot recipe, lively lemon zest, bright peas and summery basil combine with pasta, meat and vegetables for a satisfying, light and lively fall dish.

In the Test Kitchen, we’ve found that the bestway to pull off a one-pot pasta dinner is to forgo the standard approach of boiling, draining and saucing the pasta. Instead, we cook the pasta in a carefully controlled amount of liquid that reduces into a flavorful sauce. (Not only does it make for a more cohesive dish, it also dirties fewer dishes.)

For this recipe, that optimal amount of liquidwas 4 cups for 12 ounces of pasta.

Beforewe cooked the pasta, we made a flavorful base by taking a few links of sweet Italian sausage out of their casings and browning the crumbles in a Dutch ovenwith sliced cremini mushrooms. We then deglazed the pot with drywhite wine and added the pasta andwater.

Once the pastawas al dente, we turned off the heat and stirred in frozen peas (no need to thaw), basil, Parmesan and some lemon zest for brightness.

One final step remained: stirring it all vigorously for aminute. Agitating the components this way knocked starch from the pasta into the small amount of cooking liquid, transforming it into a sauce that lightly cloaked each shell.

In just about an hour, we had a substantial, tasty meal thatwould please the whole family after a busy day.

Makes: pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed teaspoons table salt teaspoon red pepper flakes 12 ounces (4 cups frozen peas ounce Parmesan cheese, grated ( 1. In a large 2. Add 3.

Stir 4. Off heat,

Recipe notes: cups) medium pasta shells until the

STEVE KLISE 1 1 2 1 1 4 2 1 1 2 cup fresh basil Dutch oven set over high heat, cook the mushrooms, sausage, shallots, salt, pepper and pepper flakes, stirring mixture frequently and breaking up meat with wooden spoon, until liquid has evaporated and browned bits have formed on bottom of pot, about 15 minutes.