Sautéed Kielbasa with Tomato Pesto Penne

PASTA! It is probably one of the easiest, most diverse, and best tasting meals that can be made. It took me awhile to realize this as I grew up eating plain pasta, aka no sauce, just butter and lots of parmesan cheese. Since then I’ve expanded my horizons significantly. There is a restaurant near my house that makes a killer italian sausage pasta dish, and ever since I had it I’ve been wanting to diversify the meats that I use in pasta dishes. I saw this recipe for a grilled kielbasa pesto penne dish and since I’ve never had kielbasa I instantly wanted to make it. The problem was I only had about 2 tablespoons of pesto… So I decided to add some tomato paste and see how it would turn out. WOW, this was so easy and sooo good. The kielbasa and red pepper flakes added a slight hint of spiciness and the pesto and tomato sauce worked perfectly with the pasta and kielbasa.

I adapted this recipe from HowTo: Simplify by using less pesto, adding tomato paste and red pepper flakes.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Penne Pasta
• 1 lb. Kielbasa
• 2 tbsp. Pesto
• 4 oz. Tomato paste
• 1 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 tsp. dried Basil
• 1/4 tsp. dried Oregano
• Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Shredded Parmesan

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to boil. Combine pesto and tomato paste in a small bowl and blend together. Add the dry ingredients to the sauce and mix until everything is blended evenly. Cut the kielbasa into 1/2 inch or 1 inch slices and sauté it until it browns and starts to have grill marks. Cook pasta according to instructions.  Drain pasta and return to pot. Add the tomato pesto sauce, kielbasa and parmesan. Toss it all together and serve.

Beats

Ilan Bluestone is tearing it up lately, from Under My Skin to Fade Into You and his remix of Fire Fire Fire below is another fantastic addition to his growing work.