Sweet Italian Sausage with Roasted Garlic Pesto

If you have never lived in NH let me give you a quick overview of how quickly the weather can change in just a few days. Last Sunday it poured and was around 60’F. Thursday was 92’F with 100% humidity; which to me means a seriously bad hair and this morning we woke to 40’F. That’s a week in the life of a New Hampshirite. These are a few short reasons why I wait to plant the gardens.

When making a new recipe that sounds good to me and in turn I am hoping that it is one I would ke to share with all of you. Sometimes I will take pictures so if the recipe turns out yummy. I can blog about it and have everything I need. In a perfect world that would probably work. Maybe I should have a camera set up in the kitchen at all times and automatically take pictures so I don’t have to “make sure” I do it. That would be a whole lot easier let me tell you.
This last week I made the recipe I am going to share with you all and we all loved it. We even had it for lunch the next day and I think it was even better. Well I took a few pictures of the very first part; roasting the garlic; and never snapped another one. So last night I went to the store around 7 o’clock to get the 2 things I was missing so I could make it again and take pictures so I could blog about it today. See how dedicated I am to you; you’re welcome wink wink!

I know the recipe is good when I share my thoughts with my husband and he is totally on board with eating the same dish in the same week. So this one will be on my go-to list as it is pretty quick, delicious and re-heats well. I think my guys ate it cold for lunch the next day and loved it. My kind of dish!

Sweet Italian Sausage & Pesto Pasta

1 head of garlic – roasted
1 Package of Brocolini
1/3 or so cup of Olive Oil
1/4 cup or handful of Almonds
Pinch or so of red chili flakes
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated
3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 pound package of medium shells
Kosher salt

slice the garlic in half, width wise, place in a small piece of tin-coil and drizzle the cut side with a little olive oil. loosely wrap the head and place in a 400′ oven for about 30-45 minutes. Once roasted let it cool before making the pesto.

Using a food processor pulse the almonds until they are just broken up. add the rest of the ingredients minus the oil and pulse to combined. while the blade is running drizzle in enough olive oil to make it a loose paste.

in a large pot fill with water; where you will be cooking your pasta and the broccolini.
generously salt the water, once it starts bubbling put in your broccolini for about a minute or two. remove to a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process.

drop your pasta and cook for 2 minutes less than the package indicates; you will be finishing off the cooking in the pan with the other ingredients.

in a large saute pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil once hot enough; just about to smoke; , add the sausage and break it down with either a wooden spoon or a potato masher until brown. add about a 1/4 cup of the pasta water to the pan and stir, getting up all the browned bits in the bottom of the pan.

reserving some of the pasta water, drain your pasta and add it to the sausage pan. Add the pesto; toss to combine. Serve immediately with grated Parmesan.