Pasta Pesto with Sautéed Nduja (Spicy Italian Sausage)
Pasta pesto with sautéed nduja, in one word: YUM! Nduja is a soft spicy Italian sausage from Calabria, in the south of Italy. It’s available in most supermarkets although I do fine the ones you get at Italian deli’s are the best.
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. However, if you’re in a rush you can even skip that and just use store bought.
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. Click here for a simple recipe.
Cook any type of pasta to your liking. Prefer larger shaped pasta shells because they have optimal surface to be coated in the sauce. So, if you’re looking for a quick and easy but tasty pasta, you should try this Pasta pesto with sautéed nduja!
Pasta Pesto with Sautéed Nduja (Spicy Italian Sausage)
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 200 g Large pasta shells (or any kind of pasta your prefer)
- ± 1 cup pesto (fresh store bought or fresh homemade)
- ± 100 g Nduja
- ± 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.
