Grilled Sausage with Olives, Capers, and Summer Vegetables

I love keeping tabs on Cara's blog for great healthy recipe ideas, tips, and tricks. Last week this recipe came up, and seemed perfect for us since we had lots of basil, summer squash, and green beans to use up! I wanted to add a grain to the dish, and ended up going with our favorite pasta - Barilla Plus (that stuff is awesome). This result was a fantastic dinner - bright from the touch of lemon, with plenty of briney goodness from the olives and capers (I found that it didn't need any additional salt). As an added bonus - it was quick to throw together, with the pasta cooking in the same time as the sausages and vegetables.



Grilled Sausage with Olives, Capers, and Summer Vegetables
Slightly adapted from Cara's Cravings

1 pound summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced
3/4 pound fresh romano beans or green beans, cut into 1 - 1 1/2" pieces
1 pound (4 links) Italian turkey or chicken sausage
about 1/3 cup chopped basil
4 ounces pitted Kalamata olives, cut in half
1 tablespoon capers
juice of 1 lemon
8 ounces of your favorite pasta
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

Combine the sliced squash and beans on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil cooking spray and season with salt and pepper. Also spray the sausages with cooking spray.

Place the vegetables in a grill basket and the sausages right on the grill. If you are using pre-cooked sausages, you won't need to leave them on their very long. Just grill until they are hot throughout and have some nice grill marks. For uncooked sausages, cook for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until cooked through and browned. Stir the vegetables every so often, until crisp-tender and lightly charred and beginning to caramelize in spots.

Meanwhile, chop the basil and slice the olives and add both to a large bowl. Also, cook pasta according to the package directions, and reserve about 1 cup of pasta water before draining pasta.  When the sausage is done, let it rest for a few minutes and then slice into 1" chunks. Add the sausage pieces, vegetables, cheese, and pasta to the bowl with the basil and capers. Squeeze the lemon juice over everything, toss, and add pasta water a little at a time to achieve desired consistency.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm.