Pesto Orecchiette with Chicken Sausage

This recipe is straight out of the May 2011 Real Simple Magazine. WM and I loved this recipe. The only changes I made to it were to use one bag of frozen green beans instead of fresh and instead of regular chicken sausage I purchased andouille chicken sausage. I hope you love this as much as we did!


Pesto Orecchette with Chicken Sausage
Ingredients:

• 12 ounces orecchiette
• 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 ounces fully cooked Italian-style chicken sausage links, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup pesto
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)

Method

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, adding the green beans and peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water; drain the pasta and vegetables and return them to the pot.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add the sausage, pesto, Parmesan, and ½ cup of the reserved cooking water to the pasta and vegetables and toss to combine (add more cooking water if the pasta seems dry).

Delicious!!!
Look, you can see some of WM's mass amounts of study material in the background.  Haha. True to life moment...