Pesto Romano Linguine

Some time ago, I was waltzing around the grocery store trying to come up with a quick meal idea.  Normally, I make my menu a few days ahead of time.  Then, I sub and swap as the week goes on.  On this particular night, I was thrown for a loop while at the grocery store because Ron told me he would be home for dinner!  You see, he had been traveling that week.  So, when Ron travels, I go on a major vegetable and fish splurge.  On that particular evening, I was at the grocery store planning on baking some salmon for dinner.  Obviously Ron is a big boy and can fend for himself, but given the fact that I hadn't seen him for several days, I thought it would be nice to eat dinner together.  So, I paced back and forth until a package of Bilinski's Pesto Romano chicken sausage caught my eye.  Pasta, it would be!

The end result was absolutely delicious.  I purchased some fresh pasta (on my to do list: make my own pasta!), some ingredients to make fresh pesto (naturally, I ended up using prepared pesto to save time), and a beautiful wild rice loaf from the Kowalski's bakery.  We had a very quick, fresh, and flavorful dinner.  I ended up adding sliced cherry tomatoes to my plate and sauteed some fresh spinach to toss throughout.  The meal took less than 10 minutes to prepare, but may take longer if you decide to make your own pesto.  I kept referring to this as the "Popeye" meal... and Popeye meal will make a showing in our kitchen again!
Pesto Romano Linquine
inspired by Bilinski's Chicken Sausage
Yield: 3-4 servings
Ingredients

• 1 (10-ounce) package fresh Spinach linguine
• 1 package Bilinski's Pesto Romano chicken sausage, or chicken sausage of your choosing, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 1/4 c - 1/2 c basil pesto, prepared or home-made
• 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cups fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup grated asiago cheese

Instructions  

1. Lightly coat a nonstick cooking pan with olive oil spray and preheat pan over low heat.  Add chicken sausage. Heat chicken sausage, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, cook the fresh pasta according to package instructions. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.
3. In the pasta pot, add 1/2 Tbsp olive oil. Saute 3 cups fresh spinach until wilted. Toss cherry tomatoes with spinach.
4. Toss pasta with spinach and tomatoes. Add sliced, heated sausage. Add pasta cooking water and pesto, adding more as desired. Mix thoroughly.
5. Season to taste, sprinkle individual servings with asiago cheese, and enjoy!