Pasta: Yum. Pesto: Yum. Nduya: YUM!
This is such a quick dish to make I can hardly call it a recipe, the only actual thing you need to make is the pesto but if you’re in a rush yo can even skip that and just buy storebought.
We have a ridiculous amount of fresh basil at the moment so I made my own, it only takes about 10 minutes to gather all your ingredients, blend it in a mixer and taste and season.
Cook any type os pasta to your liking (I prefer larger shaped pasta shells because they have optimal surface to be coated in the sauce).
Pasta Pesto with Sautéed Nduya (Spicy Italian Sausage)
Ingredients
- 200 g Large pasta shells (or any kind of pasta your prefer)
- ± 1 cup pesto (fresh store bought or fresh homemade)
- ± 100 g Nduya
- ± 200 g ripe tomatoes, sliced
- Handful toasted pine nuts (optional)
- Olive oil
- Pepper & Salt
Instructions
In a large pot bring generous amount of salted water to the boil so the pasta is free to move around.
Add the pasta and cook according to the packaging (usually 12 minutes for al dente).
While the pasta is cooking prepare the pine nuts and nduya.
In a dry non stick frying pan toast the pine nuts until just starting to colour, don't let them burn. Remove from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan add a small drop of olive oil, when hot add the nduya in chunks. The meat won't stay together but will dissolve a bit, separating the oil from the spicy meat mix. Sauté it for ! 2-3 minutes, no longer or it will burn, this is just mean to warm the meat through a bit. Turn off the heat and set aside until you're ready to serve.
Drain the pasta, keeping aside 1 cup of pasta water.
Add the pesto to the pasta and add ± 1/4 of pasta water.
Stir vigorously, this will cause the pasta water to emulsify into a sauce with the pesto.
Add more pasta water if the sauce is still a bit too thick. All the pasta should be coated with the pesto.
Serve with the nduya, tomatoes and pine nuts divided over the op. You can also add some extra basil leaves if you like.
Season with pepper and salt and a drizzle of good quality olive oil.