Italian Sausage Spinach and Ricotta Toasts

Hey Jude's Note:

These are like bruschetta, with no tomatoes, on steroids...serve them as hearty appetizers or as a main dish with a salad. This recipe is great to use up stuff like leftover bread and ricotta cheese....I always seem to end up with a bit of ricotta cheese from other recipes! These are great to serve the football crowd.

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 8 slices

• 8 ounces bulk sweet Italian sausage links, smashed up
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry or 1 1/2 cups fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 dash freshly grated nutmeg
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 8 slices Italian bread, toasted

Directions:

1. Brown sausage, stirring often, in a large skillet over medium heat until browned; add garlic and spinach and continue to cook, stirring, until spinach wilts, about 1-2 minutes; remove from heat and stir in the ricotta cheese, nutmeg and pepper.
2. Preheat your broiler; place toast slices on a sheet or pan that can go under the broiler.
3. Spread the sausage-cheese mixture on each slice of toast and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.
4. Place on pan and broil for 3-4 minutes, or till the cheese is browned and the topping is kind of bubbly; you may need to do this in two batches.
5. Serve them hot!

Reviews

[WiGal]

Delicious bruschetta! Fairly easy too. I used minced leftover sausage from Italian Sausage Pot so I did change recipe slightly. First I wilted the fresh spinach, omitted the garlic b/c the sausage had plenty, and then added the minced sausage with the ricotta and seasonings. I erred by broiling the bread for a bit on one side then adding the spread --I should NOT have done that as the bread toasted too much and the spread did not get a chance to be nice and bubbly like it should have. I should have followed your directions here as they are better. Thank you Hey Jude for posting.