Recipe: Peas in a Linguini Garden

There is this new 6-episode documentary series on Netflix called Chef's Table, and it is amazingly delicious! It follows these world-renowned chefs and tells their stories about how they made it into the foodie world.

Oops, I dropped the lemon tart

That is a dessert by an Italian 3-Michelin-starred chef. One night, his sous chef dropped one of the last two lemon tarts... and wanted to kill himself. Massimo was like, "Dude! Firstly, no need to overreact. And secondly, you're a freaking genius. Let's serve it like art!"*

*This quotation is my interpretation of what possibly happened. He's Italian and super creative and probably said something much cooler than that. 


So... I realize I'm more of a normal, everyday cook. I don't have training, the avant-garde mindset, or feel the need to redefine the traditional grandma's recipes. I kind of throw things together and hope it turns out ok. But I love food and I'm always trying to learn and improve on flavors and presentation. But really, I just want to make pretty and yummy foods for all my favorite people!

The other day, I was reading some Jamie Oliver recipes (you know: quick, fresh, wholesome) and came up with a pasta dish that I love, mainly because of the colors... and well, it tastes yummy too!

Let's call it, Peas in a Linguine Garden.

Prep time: 5 min | Cook time: 15 min | Serves: 6

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground Italian sausage
2 handfuls of grape tomatoes 
1/2 lb. green beans, mushrooms, etc.
1 bag frozen peas
1 box linguine pasta
1/2 lemon
optional: fresh grated Parmesan Reggiano to finish

Directions:
1.  Wash & prep veggies: half the grape tomatoes, half the mushrooms, trim green beans.
2.  Boil a pot of water and cook linguine until al dente. (Don't forget to add salt in the boiling water.)
3.  Meanwhile, heat EVOO in a pan and brown ground Italian sausage.
4.  Cook the bag of frozen peas according to instructions. (my $0.99 Publix frozen peas take ~5-6 minutes in the microwave so I throw those in about now).
5.  When the meat has barely any pink left, add veggies (green beans, mushrooms) and saute around.
6.  Add halved grape tomatoes and squeeze in lemon juice from 1/2 lemon. Let simmer for 3 minutes. Take off heat.
7.  When pasta is done, reserve a ladle of the pasta water before draining. Add to the sausage & veggies pan to make slightly more liquid.
8.  Plate: Pasta. Sausage and veggie topping. Grated cheese. Top with cooked peas.

When I went back for seconds, I realized that the husband doesn't love peas and I was going out of town the next day for a long weekend. So if I didn't want to throw away the peas, I'd have to finish them...

Hmm... I dunno, you think maybe I put too much?