Pesto Pasta!

In November I found how to make my Zupas grilled cheeses...and bought a thing of pesto from Sam's Club....which means I still have a ton of it... I don't know how long it is good for, but I have been looking for recipes that use pesto that I am not also allergic to, and finally found one that my husband also thought sounded good enough to try. I made THIS last night and it was a winner! The only complaint was the child who doesn't like tomatoes didn't want them. :)

This time I followed the exact (easy) instructions, but I'm copying them here in case the link is ever not working.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups or 8 oz uncooked rotini pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
1 round chicken sausage (photo below...)
1 1/4 cups frozen peas
3/4 cup basil pesto
1 cup Italian cheese blend (I used the mozzarella and parmesan that I had)
1 tomato, chopped (I only chopped half a roma tomato and it was plenty to top the skillet with)

Cook the pasta according to the directions. Set aside. Heat oil in skillet. Add sliced sausage and brown. Then add cooked pasta, frozen peas and pesto. Stir, and warm thru, about 5-7 minutes. Top with cheese and tomato, and cover on the hot burner for 2-3 minutes.
Serve!

*My husband thought zucchini would be much better than peas, so we'll have to try that in the summer. He also thought maybe not using the olive oil, but the sausage stuck to my pan like crazy, and I think it needed the oil. Then the pesto worked to help de-glaze the pan. So I'd stick with the recommended measurements...

This is the sausage the picture made me think of, and this was also the only chicken sausage I could find at my store, so that's what we did. It was very tasty, but we also really like sausage in our house.