Italian Sausage Spinach and Ricotta Toasts

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.

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Yields: 8 slices

Ingredients

• 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!