I would actually give this one about 3.5 stars but am rounding up due to the rating scale. The recipe was better than store bought salads and was on par with decent restaurant food. There was WAAAAYYYY too much mayo used in the recipe. Next time I would cut the mayo down to about 1 cup, maybe even 3/4 of a cup. There also wasn't enough pasta to balance out the abundant amount of mayo. If you are going to keep the mayonaisse the same I would add another 1/2 to 3/4 cup of dried pasta. If you bring the mayo down I would still add about another 1/4 cup of pasta. The taste was good for an imitation crab salad. The Worcestershire and hot sauce give it a nice tang. If you want more spice I would hold up on the hot sauce and add more dijon or Worcestershire instead, they will give it a kick with a stronger flavor. If you just want that burning on your tounge sensation go with the hot sauce or add a couple teaspoons of minced raw onion. With a few changes I believe this recipe could be a solid 4 (perhaps higher).

Reviewed On: Aug. 6, 2008

Listen to the "large, deep skillet" suggestion in the recipe. I had to switch out my pan (too small). It doesn't specify how to cook the sausage in the recipe. I would suggest removing the casing after cooking it a little and then use a spoon (or spatula) to grind up the meat while in the pan. This will resemble ground beef if done properly and will spreadload the flavor throughout the whole dish. If you don't like chunks of tomato you can throw the diced tomatoes in a blender or processor for a few second and will have something a little thicker than sauce but not as chunky as salsa. The recipe doesn't state where to use the olive oil but common sense would dictate that it is to saute the onions and sausage. I also put a few drops in my boiling water to defroth it and add flavor to the penne. Shoot me now, I used cheddar (white and orange) for this recipe instead of mozzarella as I had none. The recipe was good not great, but could have been had I used the correct cheese with it.

Reviewed On: Jun. 18, 2008

I followed the advice of another poster when preparing and cooking this. I used the dry ingredients as a rub and cooked the meat (pork shoulder ribs) on a propane grill under indirect heat (this means off of the flame on the other side of the grill and covered) for one hour. They looked and smelled amazing at this point. I then began basting about every 15 minutes with the sauce for another hour (used some regular old Kraft BBQ sauce). They came off after 2 hours with a semi-glazed sauce and stayed pretty juicy. Overall they tasted good but not great. For me it was the type of meat I used and the cumin. For some reason the cumin overpowered the sauce? If I make these again I am definately going to cut the cumin in half. I should mention that my girlfriend thought they were amazing, hence the 4 stars instead of 3 (whip cracks in the background).

Reviewed On: Jun. 17, 2008