Orecchiette with Basil Pesto, Fennel & Sausage

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. Print Recipe Orecchiette with Sausage and Basil-Walnut Pesto Ingredients1 batch basil-walnut pesto (made using 2 cups loosely packed basil leaves) (recipe link in instructions)4 tbsp olive oil1 cup finely chopped fennel bulb1 cup finely chopped onion1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed2 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) InstructionsMake a...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Pasta Rice & Potatoes basil Chicken broth Orecchiette pesto sausage Source Type: blogs