healthy? no. delicious? yes.

Both my mom and dad’s families have  roots in south east Texas and Louisiana so I guess I can claim that I have an teensy bit of Cajun in me. Because of our “Cajun heritage", we feel the need to have an annual  family crawfish boil. It’s one  of my and Lane’s favorite times of the year. In true family fashion, we always end up with WAY too much food. At the end of the night, even if you’ve had all the crawfish you can eat, you still continue to peel. In the end, you have a stash of take home crawfish. I smother it in butter and garlic, freeze it and forget about it….until  now.

I’ve had a craving for crawfish this summer. It’s not something that I normally order at restaurants but I keep seeing the little tails peeking at me through my freezer. So, when menu planning this week, I decided that tonight was the night.

This recipe is a hybrid from a website, from my great aunt and from  my brain. It was DELICIOUS. Not healthy AT all, but delicious. We paired it with a Caesar salad and chardonnay. Oh, and homemade cinnamon ice cream…but that’ll have to come later.

Crawfish and Andouille Sausage Pasta

14.5 oz bowtie pasta, cooked according to package directions

2 T. olive oil

1 large onion, diced

2 small containers mushrooms (I used baby bella  and shitake)

4 stalks celery, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t. crushed red pepper flakes

1 t. Slap Yo Mamma (yep. that’s what it’s called. It’s similar to Tony Cachere’s seasoning)

1 t. salt

1 c. fat free half and half (you could totally use normal half and half. I just couldn’t make myself do it.)

1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1/2 lb. andouille sausage, cooked and sliced

1/2 lb. crawfish tails, cooked and thawed if frozen

1 T. cornstarch (optional)

ground black pepper to taste

green onions for garnish

Cook pasta according to package directions. While the pasta cooks, add the olive oil to a  deep skillet  and heat over medium heat. Add the onions, mushrooms and celery and cook until soft. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Season with salt, red pepper flakes and cajun seasoning. Add half and half and cream. Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Simmer for about 5 minutes. If the sauce needs to be thickened, use the cornstarch. Add crawfish and sausage and continue to simmer until it’s reached desired thickness and crawfish and sausage are heated through.  Toss in pasta to coat. Garnish with black pepper and green onions.