I don’t know about you, but I get all excited when my favorite magazine arrives. For me, it’s the Food Network Magazine. Each issue is full of delicious recipes, gadgets, celebrity chef kitchen tours and more. I love the weeknight meal section which has great ideas for creating a delicious dinner without spending hours in the kitchen. It gets delivered to me at work which is probably not the best idea since it teases me all day with the mouthwatering foods on the front cover. I try to make at least one of the recipes the day I receive the latest issue and the recipe this time was spinach pesto pasta.

This recipe is a snap to make. Using fresh spinach and chicken sausage for the meatballs, it had a unique flavor without weighing you down.  I followed the recipe completely. I did the steps a different way and I made my sausage patties bigger. But in all, it turned out great. Tip: avoid using a blender for the pesto. It won’t work. Stick with the food processor.

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Spinach Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage

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Serves	4
Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	30 minutes
From magazine	Food Network Magazine

Ingredients

• 10oz mezzi rigatoni
• 4 cups fresh spinach (divided)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• finely grated lemon zest from 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (more if you like it hot)
• 1/2lb ground italian chicken sausage
• 3 cloves garlic (sliced thin)
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/2lb ground italian chicken sausage
• 3 cloves garlic (sliced thin)
• fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions

Step 1

Boil salted water in a large pot. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking liquid and drain pasta.

Step 2

While pasta is cooking, add 2 cups spinach, 2 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon each of the olive oils and pine nuts, lemon zest, lemon juice and red pepper to a food processor and pulse until smooth. Scrape down sides and add parmesan and pulse again until smooth. Set aside.

Step 3

Form the sausage into patties. I made mine about the size of a silver dollar. Heat remaining olive oil into a large deep saucepan and add the sausage patties. Cook until browned. Flip and add the sliced garlic and cook until patties are just cooked through. Mine took about 5 minutes.

Step 4

Add the pasta, pesto and half the cooking water to the saucepan and toss to coat. If you need additional cooking water, add more in small amounts. Stir in remaining spinach and cook until wilted. Top with additional parmesan and the remaining pine nuts.

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For Nutrition information and points values, click the Magic Button

Holy cow this was good! If you’re like me, you hope it comes out like the picture. This time, it did. Just my patties were larger and I didn’t shave the parmesan on top.  But this was delicious and a must make again. Maybe next time with shrimp? We’ll see….. What would you change or do you think the recipe is perfect just the way it is?

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