Pesto Pasta with Sweet Sausage

Ingredients

1-2 tbsp homemade pesto (see recipe)

56g penne pasta

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 sweet sausage

3-4 red chiles, sliced

basil, parm, black pepper, for garnish

Directions

1. Poke holes in sausage, and simmer in a small pot of water, sausage submerged half-way, about 8 min. Once cooked, slice sausage into coins.

2. Bring a pot of salted water to boil, and cook pasta to al dente. Drain pasta and place in bowl, reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add pesto to the bowl with pasta and start mixing until pesto softens. Slowly add pasta water to emulsify the pesto. (Do not use all the water, just slowly add until sauce looks "saucy", too much and it will just be watery, if you go too far, just add more pesto)

4. Lightly oil skillet and bring to medium heat. Cook sausage on both sides until a nice browning. Add sasuage to pasta bowl and mix in.

5. In same skillet, cook and salt the tomatoes and peppers until softened. Add to pasta bowl and mix in.

6. Plate and garnish with parmesan, black pepper, and/or basil, if desired.