Sausage Pesto Pasta With Creamy Feta

Sausage pesto pasta with creamed feta

This sausage pesto pasta with creamy feta is one of my absolute favorite comfort foods, and one of the recipes I’ve been making for years. Of course I’ve upgraded and changed things over time, but a simple pasta dish with fresh Ligurian pesto is always a welcome dish in my house. I’ve spruced up this recipe with some Italian sausage and creamy feta, and everything can be made from scratch.

Now don’t let the idea that everything CAN be made from scratch mean that it MUST be. Absolutely not. I prefer to use box spaghetti rather than fresh pasta for this recipe, and if you were so inclined you could use jar pesto sauce to save time. I know that creamy feta is not available all over the place, but it’s extremely easy to make as well.

Let’s start with the sausages in this sausage pesto pasta. You could do them without the casing if you want something more rough, but cooking them in the casing works well too. Just cook them for about 5 minutes, or until 90% of the way cooked through. Then the magic happens. I cut the almost cooked sausage into coins and then toss them back on the pan to crisp up all sides.

Surprisingly this is the first green pesto dish I have put up on the site. I specify green pesto because I have already put up a Yellow Pesto Fettuccine and Red Pesto Potatoes. You can of course use store-bought, but making your own pesto is not difficult at all. Just blitz basil, garlic, and pine seeds while slowly trickling in high quality olive oil. Traditionally a Ligurian pesto is made with a mortar and pestle, but we live with electricity so there’s nothing wrong with a bit of cheating.

Ligurian green pesto
For a more authentic pesto use a mortar and pestle…but we all know how much work that is.

Add a few tablespoons of pesto to a pan on low heat, just to warm it up. Once the pasta is cooked, use tongs to lift it directly from the pot to the pan. This way you don’t need to worry about reserving some pasta water and straining, some starchy water will come along with the pasta.

Sausage Pesto Pasta in the pan

At this point I reintroduce the sausage, along with some leftover pine seeds from making the pesto. Also a few leaves of basil never hurt. If you can’t find store-bought creamy feta it’s super easy to make on your own. You can use a blender or just by hand. I use 100 grams of salty feta with two tablespoons of heavy cream. Just mix them together and store it in a resealable container. Super easy and great as a spread! For this dish I just used a butter knife to scoop a bit of the creamy feta and drop it right on top of the sausage pesto pasta.

Sausage pesto pasta with creamed feta

Sausage Pesto Pasta With Creamy Feta

This sausage pesto pasta is paired with creamy feta cheese (store bought or homemade) for a quick and easy meal. Pesto Pasta is one of my favorite comport foods any time of day.
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Main Course, Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Servings 2 people
Calories

Equipment

  • Pot
  • Pan

Ingredients
  

  • 300 grams Spaghetti or other long noodles
  • 3 Italian Sausages
  • 100 grams Creamy Feta store bought is fine
  • 3 tbsp Pesto store-bought is fine
  • 2 tbsp Pine Seeds
  • 2 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
  • 1 tbsp Olive Oil

Homemade Pesto (the ratios are up to you, I never measure pesto exactly)

  • 1 bunch Basil
  • 1 scoop Pine Seeds like a couple tablespoons, but you can do more or less depending on how big your bunch of basil is
  • 1 clove Garlic more or less
  • 1 handful Parmesan Cheese grated
  • 1 drizzle Olive Oil high quality
  • Black Pepper to taste
  • Salt optional (parmesan can be quite salty, so taste to see if you need to add more salt. I usually add a pinch, but it's up to you)

Creamy Feta

  • 100 grams Feta Cheese
  • 2 tbsp Heavy Cream

Instructions
 

  • If you are not using store bought pesto or feta then make those first. For the pesto add all the ingredients to a food processor and blitz, then slowly trickle in the olive oil until you get a desired consistency. For the creamy feta just mash the feta with the cream using a fork until you create a cheese paste (it will look a lot like cream cheese, because it kind of is).

Sausage Pesto Pasta With Creamy Feta

  • Start a pot of boiling salted water. When boiling add the spaghetti. It takes me around 8 minutes for al dente, but check your box for their instructions.
  • In a skillet add some olive oil and turn the heat on medium high. Add the sausages and cook for 5 minutes, or until 90% cooked. Remove the sausages and cut them into coins. Add them back to the pan and cook for another minute or so, then remove and set aside.
  • Back in the skillet turn the heat down low and add the pesto. Spread it around to warm it up. Use tongs to move the spaghetti directly from the boiling water into the pan and toss to coat with pesto. Reintroduce the sausages and toss to coat again. Add pine seeds and black pepper to taste.
  • Plate the pasta and add little bits of the creamy feta dotting the top. Sprinkle with some more pine seeds and fresh basil. Enjoy!

Notes

This dish holds well overnight, but pesto pasta has a tendency to dry out. Id suggest adding a bit of olive oil and tossing the pasta again before microwaving to heat it up.
Keyword Creamy Feta, Pasta Recipe, Sausage Pesto Pasta
sausage pesto pasta with creamy feta pin recipe
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