Cooler Weather and Tuscan Pot Pie

While I'm definitely more of a spring/summer girl, I am enjoying the cooler weather.  It's pretty nice to be able to go outside in jeans and not break a sweat.  It's also nice to be able to include some heartier dishes in my weekly rotation.  While the grill remains one of my best friends, I'm looking forward to some soups and casseroles. 

Last week, I made Tuscan Pot Pie.  We are a house divided when it comes to pot pies.  I LOVE them, but Frank, not so much.  Since this one had sausage, I thought he might like it more than some of the others I've made. 


Tuscan Pot Pie
You can bake this in an ovenproof skillet or a pie pan.
Prep and Cook time is 30 Minutes total.

3/4 lb sweet or Italian sausage (you can also make this with vegetarian sausage)
1 jar (24-28oz) spaghetti sauce (I usually use chunky garden to get more vegetables in there)
1 can (19oz) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 cups (6oz) shredded mozzarella
1 package (8oz) refrigerated crescent rolls

1. Preheat oven to 425. Brown and crumble sausage in a skillet. Drain.
2. Add mushrooms and cook about 5 minutes.
3. Add spaghetti sauce, beans, and thyme. Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cheese.
4. Pour mixture into a pie pan.
5. Unroll crescent dough; divide into triangles. Arrange on top of mixture in spiral with points toward center. Cover mixture completely. Bake 12 minutes or until crust is brown


Okay, so did you catch that in this recipe, there is only a top crust?  Until I was actually assembling my ingredients, I didn't notice that.  I decided to make a change on the fly, because we love crust.  I used a storebought pie crust that I happened to have in the freezer for a bottom crust and then used the crescent rolls as a top crust.  Since the storebought bottom crust was smaller, I couldn't arrange the crescents in a spiral, so it wasn't very pretty and I didn't use all of the crescents.  But what it lacked in presentation it made up for in taste! 

This was really delicious. 

We liked having a top crust and bottom crust, but I would like to think of a way to make this look prettier next time.  Maybe use a puff pastry sheet instead of the crescents?  I'll have to think of something because this one is a definite "make again!"