Creamy sausage pasta with watercress and chestnut pesto

  • Portion size: Serves 2
  • Takes 15 minutes to make, 10 minutes to cook
  • Difficulty: easy

Our speedy sausage pasta recipe, with chestnuts and watercress, serves two people and uses shortcut ingredients to make midweek cooking easy.

Prefer a pasta bake? Take a look at this knockout sausage and fennel pasta bake recipe. 

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Ingredients

  • 75g Tesco Finest whole chestnuts, or similar
  • 2 x 85g Tesco washed & ready to eat watercress, roughly chopped, or similar
  • 200g fresh penne, or similar
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 25g parmesan, grated, plus extra to serve
  • Handful of fresh basil leaves, plus extra to serve
  • Olive oil for frying
  • 3 free-range British pork sausages (about 200g), skins removed
  • 3 tbsp double cream
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
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Method

  1. In a food processor, briefly whizz the chestnuts, garlic, parmesan and basil. Add the watercress and whizz again to a crumbly pesto.
  2. Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, then add the meat from the sausages. Fry for 5 minutes until golden, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon. Stir in the cream and simmer, then stir through the pesto and the red wine vinegar. Taste and season.
  3. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then add the fresh penne. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until al dente, or according to pack instructions, then drain, reserving a little of the pasta water. Stir the pasta into the sauce along with the reserved pasta water, then serve sprinkled with extra grated parmesan and a few basil leaves.
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Quick wins & tips

Next time… Stir the pesto through cooked penne, transfer to casserole, top with mozzarella, then bake for 10 minutes until melted.

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