Creamy Pasta in White Sauce with Spicy Chicken Sausages

I generally never buy sausages - just because, we have never really found a creative way to eat them. As a family, we do not like to eat sausage for breakfast or even as a sandwich in a hot-dog bun. We have tried those breakfast sausages and have liked the spicy Italian ones the best, it has been used as a pizza topping more then often. We have even tried the seafood sausages - we liked them out of their casing and used as a pizza topping or as a part of a pasta dish.
The other day I found these spicy cilantro and green chilis chicken sausages - the flavor combination looked nice and hence we bought it.
Pasta was the thing that came to mind the day my kiddo said she wanted to have chicken pasta. We had a super busy weekend - a birthday party on a Saturday which went on till late at night, and then we had a communion to attend to on Sunday morning - I was exhausted by the evening. But, the smile on Little Miss A's face and her cute way of asking gave me the energy and the inspiration.
Its actually a pretty dish and takes some time. But, the best prize and the biggest compliment was when she ate away her bowl of pasta without wasting any time and without dropping anything in the floor.

The sausages are always in a pork casing - for people who do not eat pork - you can substitute with marinated pieces of chicken or just have it with some other veggies like peppers, corn, olives etc etc.

Ingredients

2 cups penne pasta - I used a variety of shapes
4 chicken sausages
2 cups broccoli florets - cut into bite size pieces
2 medium carrots - sliced into circles
1 medium onion - roughly chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil (any oil will work)
2 cloves garlic - grated
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour (all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt to taste

Method

In a saucepan add 5 cups of water. Cover it and let this water come to a boil. Once it boils, add 1 teaspoon salt and then the pasta and cook for about 8 minutes. Generally that's the time it takes to cook those packaged pasta. Do check the cooking instructions to see otherwise.
Once its cooked, drain it in a colander and add 1 teaspoon oil and toss it around the colander, so that the pasta does not stick together.
Remove the chicken sausages from their casing and slice it. In a frying pan, add these slices and let them cook through. Sausages generally have oil in them so you do not need greasing. Cook it on medium heat till its cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove onto a plate. In the same pan add 1 teaspoon oil and add the chopped onions. Once the onions get translucent, add the broccoli florets and the carrots. Add salt to taste and cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove them into the same plate as the chicken sausages.
Now to make the sauce. Take a saucepan, add the butter to it. When it gets hot, add the grated garlic and bring the heat to a medium - be careful not to burn it. Now add the flour and mix well. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes to get the raw smell of the flour out. Now add the milk and keep stirring so as to not form any lumps. I generally use a whisk and it does not create any lumps. Add salt to taste and the crushed black pepper. Let this mixture come to a boil and then let it simmer for 5 minutes. To this add the cooked pasta and the chicken and veggies. Mix well. Garnish with chopped parsley (I did not have any) and serve with a side of garlic bread.