Since I had no faith in my tomatoes, I hoped against all odds my basil would grow big enough to produce pesto-making worthy leaves.

I’m crazy for pesto.  And it can be crazy expensive.  So when my basil plant took off, I gleefully plucked leaves for a pesto dish percolating in my mind.

I’m also crazy for chicken sausage.  So many flavors.  So easy.  SO GOOD!

So I put the idea of chicken sausage and pesto together into this pesto pasta with chicken sauage dish.

Ingredients:

+1 package pasta (Any shape, any type you like.  I used whole wheat rotini.)

+A bunch of grape tomatoes (cut in half) or about two regular tomatoes (chopped)

+Feta cheese (How much is up to you.)

+Pesto (2 cups basil, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/3 walnuts (or pine nuts), 3 medium garlic cloves (minced), salt and pepper to taste)

Boil water for the pasta.  In the mean time, slice up the chicken sausage into bite-sized pieces and brown in a pan coated with cooking spray or olive oil.  Chop up tomatoes.  Make pesto (just toss all the ingredients in a food processor).  After the pasta is cooked and drained, combine the pasta, tomatoes, pesto, and chicken sausage.  Add some salt, pepper, and grated parmesan cheese to taste.  Enjoy!

How easy is that?  And it’s oh, so delicious and makes for great leftovers.  You don’t even need to heat this dish up.  It tastes awesome room temperature.

I’m planning to whip up some more pesto and save it in icecube trays for the impending winter months.  Do you love pesto?  Any yummy pesto recipes to share?