Pasta, Pork and Potatoes and Building Sheds

My husband took the entire week off from work last week to build a shed in our backyard. It rained eight days in a row. He built as much as he could in the garage and then finally on Friday was able to move the whole operation to the backyard. But it was cold. Very cold.

So while he was outside working feverishly in the cold, the kids and I were inside munching on kale chips and watching Return to Neverland, trying to figure out what dinner could be made with 1/2 lb of ground pork, one sweet potato (of course) and some fusilli pasta that would be hearty enough to satisfy his hunger, but not too heavy as to weigh him down.

He continued to work.

And I came up with this. (I've made it twice since. It's that good.)

Fusilli with Pork and Sweet Potato Ragu

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 lb ground pork
1 large sweet potato, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb fusilli pasta (I use Trader Joe's brown rice organic pasta)
1/2 cup reserved pasta cooking water
Salt to taste

Directions:

Set a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil. Salt water and cook pasta according to package directions. Chop your veggies.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a medium pan. Add pork and cook until no longer pink. Add the sweet potato to the pan, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until soft. Add the onion and garlic.

Toss to combine and add the second tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt. Cook until the onion is soft.

Drain pasta, reserving a half a cup of the cooking liquid. Put the pasta back in its original pot. Add the pork mixture and over low heat, toss to combine.

Add as much of the cooking liquid that is needed to achieve a loose mixture (I used about 1/4 cup). Season with salt if necessary. Divide into four servings and serve immediately. If you don't have any dairy restrictions, fresh grated romano cheese is yummy sprinkled on top.

You know our love of sweet potatoes and our even deeper love of sweet potatoes, so this of course, has easily made it into our weekly rotation. (I have made this without the pork too and it's just as delicious.) The shed is standing, not quite finished and it's 80 degrees outside again. I just turned our air conditioning on. That makes talking about pumpkin lattes and apple crisps a little bit hard when we're still knocking back lemonade and munching grilled hamburgers. But I am definitely not complaining.

Nutrition Information Per 1/4 Serving: Calories 464; Total Fat 21g; Total Carb 46g; Fiber 6g; Sugars 3g; Protein 15g
*Nutrition information has been calculated using an online recipe calculator tool.