Pesto Pasta with Andouille Sausage

This summer, with so much to do outside, I’m loving some of these one or two dish meals that include the meat, the starch and the veggies.  Served with a side salad and bread and it’s not too heavy and quick to clean up.

My recipe was based on this one but I made a few changes and here are the large changes I made:

The recipe calls for 1/3 cup pesto.  Last year when I had so much basil, I made pesto, froze it in ice cube trays, then individually wrapped those and dropped them into a zipper freezer bag so instead of 1/3 cup pesto, I used two cubes of my frozen pesto and that saved the time of having to make it for the recipe.

I added about half a pound of asparagus and because I had it in the freezer, I used andouille sausage instead of chicken sausage.

And . . just so you know . . the green beans came from my garden!

Here’s the recipe, with my changes:

Pesto Pasta with Andouille Sauage:

1 pound andouille sausage, sliced
1 – 1 lb. box of bow tie pasta
1/2 pound tender green beans, sliced into 1″ lengths
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 bunch of asparagus, sliced into 1″ lengths
1/3 cup pesto
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
1. In a Dutch Oven type pot, brown the sausage. Pour off excess grease but do not wipe. Return sausage to the pot.
2. Add the green beans, green peas and asparagus. Saute til veggies are barely tender.
3. In a separate pot, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, but reserve at least 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid.
4. Add drained pasta to sausage pot. Stir in pesto and enough of the pasta cooking liquid to make just a bit of “sauce”.
5. Taste before adding seasonings.

Serve with Parmesan cheese.