Cooked sausage links need only heat and a sauce to become dinner. This garlicky oil coats pasta and sausage in minutes, a weeknight trick that tastes like you had more time than you did.

Serves 2. 20 minutes, 15 at the stove.

About 1040 calories a serving, 79 g protein, 70 g carbohydrate, 50 g fat. From USDA figures for 100% of the ingredients; amounts are the recipe's.

Cook mode

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add 6 ounces of pasta, stirring until it starts to soften, about 2 minutes. While it cooks, slice 3 garlic cloves thin and warm 3 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the sliced garlic to the warm oil and cook until it turns pale gold, about 2 minutes, stirring so it does not brown. Cut 6 sausage links into half-inch rounds and add them to the skillet, tossing to warm through, about 3 minutes.5 min
3. Drain the pasta, saving 1/2 cup of the cooking water, and add the pasta to the skillet with the sausage. Toss and add splashes of the reserved water to loosen the mixture into a light sauce, then taste and season with salt and pepper.
4. Halve the lemon and squeeze the juice over the pasta at the table.

Note Swap the sausage for any other cooked protein or leave it out and add white beans from a tin. Leftovers keep three days covered in the fridge and reheat gently with a splash of water. Serve with a green salad or bitter greens with vinegar.