Everyday Spaghetti

I use any kind of pasta, it doesn't have to be spaghetti, but "Everyday Spaghetti" sounds better than "Everyday Pasta", right? Here's how you make it.

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. spaghetti or pasta (I get mine from Meijer or Kroger...it doesn't matter)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (Kirkland brand)
• 1 lb. sausage (Italian, Kirkland brand)
• 1/2 Tbs. Italian Seasoning (Kirkland brand)
• 1 Tbs. salt
• Optional ingredient: 1 can tomato sauce

Directions

1.  Fill pot halfway with water (mine's probably a foot or maybe two feet deep). A couple cupfuls of water. It depends. Just guess, it won't really matter. Just enough to cook a full package of pasta/spaghetti without the pasta getting hard.
2. Add salt, cover pot with lid.
3. Get out your pan. It can be a skillet, I think. I've never tried skillet, though.
4. Put the sausage in, cut the sausage up into bite-size pieces. I just use a big serving spoon to cut it up, nothing special.
5. Turn on the heat (it doesn't matter if you turn it on before or after you put in the sausage) to 5, if you're using a stove with actual fire, not just a heated surface. If you're using a heated surface, I'm not sure if it's the same. If it is, great, if it's not, I can't help you. Sorry.
6. Brown the sausage. I like mine a little bit more browned than just turning the sausage into a gray-ish color that it always turns when it's cooked. I like it to have brown around the edges, like the brown you see on caramelized onions (mmm, love those).
7. Once the sausage is browned, add the diced tomatoes and some Italian Seasoning. Me, I don't measure, I just sprinkle it over the whole thing and wait until everything in the pan is pretty much covered with it. Not a ton, but lightly covering, like a sprinkling of snow when you want it to be a foot of snow.
   If you're going to add the tomato sauce, add it now.
8. Cover the pan and wait for the water in the deep pot to boil
9. Once the water in the deep pot is boiling, pour in the package of pasta. How to tell if the water is boiling: steam should be coming out around the lid.
10. Set the timer according to the pasta box.
11. Once the time is up, strain the pasta.
12. Put the pasta in the sausage-and-tomato mixture (yick, sounds gross).
13. Stir and

(Additional ingredient: If you like your pasta wetter and more tomato-y, add a can of tomato sauce.)