As the weather turns towards winter, the basil plant on my windowsill begins to worry me. Sure, it has sun in that spot, but less and less with each day, and eventually not enough to keep it alive when cold winds pummel the adjacent glass. Time to harvest what basil remains before it’s lost. I had just enough basil for a batch of pesto, but no pine nuts. What I did have was a tiny jar of walnuts in my freezer – exactly the amount I needed! So I made a batch of pesto using my recipe for basil pesto, substituting walnuts for pine nuts.
I also had about 2 cups of homemade chicken broth in the freezer. So I scouted around for a good way to use both the broth and the pesto and discovered this recipe from NYT Cooking. I substituted the basil-walnut pesto for the broccoli-rabe pesto in that recipe and Viola! A new recipe. It was delicious!
I love it when ingredient availability drives cooking invention.
Orecchiette with Sausage and Basil-Walnut Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 generous cup basil-walnut pesto Recipe link in instructions
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup finely chopped fennel bulb
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 500 grams orecchiette about 1 1/4 pounds dried, or fresh (made with 4 cups flour)
- Sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Make a batch of Basil pesto, substituting walnuts for pine nuts, using this recipe.
- Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on low. Add fennel and onion, and cook until soft but not brown. Add sausage and cook, mashing it to a fine crumble, until it is no longer pink. Add chicken stock and cook until the stock has mostly evaporated and just glazes the sausage. Transfer sausage mixture to a food processor and pulse until finely ground (But Not too much! ). Return sausage mixture to the pan. Fold in a generous cup of the pesto.(Can be made ahead and held here.)
- Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orecchiette and cook until al dente. Reheat sausage mixture and add 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain pasta and add to pan with the sausage mixture. Toss until pasta is evenly coated. Fold in remaining ½ cup cheese, check seasoning, add more pasta water if needed, and serve topped with grated Parmesan and thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes.
