Italian-Sausage Burgers with Garlicky Spinach

I found this awesome recipe in this month’s issue of Food & Wine and modified it slightly. It has introduced me to cooking with meat from sausage links. It’s so quick and easy to do. The meat is already seasoned, and from my experience so far, stays really moist (if you don’t overcook it, of course).

2 Servings

½ bag of pre-washed baby spinach
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 hot & spicy Italian sausage links, remove from casings
Monterey Jack cheese
2 Tbsp of mayo
1 tsp of pesto
1 Tbsp of chopped sun-dried tomato
A few rings of red onion
2 ciabatta rolls
Slices of salted cucumbers
EVOO (If you don’t know what this is, I’m not going to tell you. Your welcome, Rachel.)

Heat grill for burgers.

Using wet hands, make patties out of sausage. Brush both sides of patties with EVOO. Grill patties over medium heat, about 5 minutes on each side. After flipping burger, top with cheese. Add buns to grill to toast.

Heat EVOO in skillet, add spinach. Sauté until almost wilted, then add garlic. Sauté for a few minutes until garlic is translucent. Set aside.

Mix mayo, pesto and sun-dried tomato. Spread pesto on rolls, when they are done toasting. Top burgers with spinach and red onions. Serve with cucumber slices.

Note: If you want more garlic flavor, add garlic at the end of cooking the spinach, like I did. If you want less garlic flavor, sauté the garlic first and then sauté spinach.