Pasta Florentine with Pesto Cream Sauce

The sauce is the boss.

It's what makes all those dishes so special when you go out to a fancy restaurant. The mushroom marsala sauce. The balsamic glaze. The gravy. The Asian General Tsao sauce.

My younger self was so intimidated by sauces. If it required a sauce, I had to have the exact recipe, and I followed it like it was the law.

I've gotten much better with sauces. 

There are a few things I rely on now to help me with this.

*If it's a cream sauce, start with a little butter, a little flour, a little cream, and go from there.

*If it's an Asian sauce, you will probably want corn starch as your thickener. 

*A beef broth sauce can always benefit from a little Worcestershire sauce.

*Good stock or broth can make or break a sauce.

*A thin sauce will often thicken if left to simmer a while. Be patient. 

*Reserved pasta water is often a good thickener, too. This works great for tomato based sauces.

Today's recipe was inspired by leftovers in my fridge. I had a little leftover pesto (I love the Aldi brand), a little leftover sundried tomato, some spinach.

Pasta Florentine was born!

Here are the ingredients:

1 pkg. Tomato Basil chicken sausage

Farfalle pasta (I like Jovial Gluten Free)

1 T. butter

1 T. flour

1/2-1 c. half and half or heavy cream

1 c. chicken broth

1 T. pesto

1/4 c. chopped sundried tomatoes

2-3 c. fresh spinach

freshly grated parmesan for topping

Cook pasta according to directions. In a separate pan, cook sausage until done. Remove from pan and set aside. In same pan, add butter and flour and cook until bubbly. Add cream and broth, then add pesto and tomatoes. Add sausage slices.  Simmer for a few minutes, then add spinach and cook until wilted.

Drain pasta and top with sausage and cream. Top with freshly grated parmesan and enjoy!

This dish did not need extra seasoning, as the pesto had plenty.

We try to stay on top of our carb consumption, and we typically only eat pasta once or twice a month. This one was a treat. My husband gave it two thumbs up.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I plan on working in the craft studio today. I have a long To Do list! Should be fun.