Pesto Potato Salad with Sausage

Several months ago I wrote about our new favorite potato salad, Fully Loaded Potato Salad. Well, yesterday I accidentally discovered a serious contender for favorite when I was trying to use leftovers in my fridge and freezer. This new potato salad is so completely different from either the Fully Loaded Potato Salad or a more traditional potato salad that it warrants a post of its own.

Pesto Potato Salad with Sausage

• 2 pounds of new potatoes or fingerling potatoes, cooked and cubed
• 1 pound ground sausage, browned and crumbled
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 bunch of green onions, chopped
• 2 roma tomatoes, diced
• 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
• 3/4  c. pesto
• 3 c. sour cream (I used fat free sour cream because it was in my fridge)
• salt and pepper to taste

Stir pesto into sour cream. Mix all the other ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in sour cream mixture while the potatoes and sausage are still warm (but not hot). Serve in bowls.

This dish would also be extra tasty with bratwurst or Italian sausage instead of ground sausage.

Laura and I frequently write about our happy accidents in the kitchen, usually involving leftovers and random ingredients in our refrigerators and pantries. There are several reasons why we share these accidents with you.

First, it allows us to record some of our more successful experiments in case we want to repeat an “accident.” Sometimes, we upgrade a “happy accident” to an intentional new favorite. We often encourage our readers to “use what you have” and not run out to the store to purchase ingredients specifically for many of our more creative dishes. It’s only fair, though, to mention that some dishes become such favorites that I DO make sure I buy all the necessary ingredients. This potato salad is one of those dishes. I will intentionally shop for all the ingredients next time I want to make it.

One of the other reasons that Laura and I write up our experiements is because it illustrates in practical terms HOW we cook, how we stretch a food budget, how we live as responsibly as we can when food prices keep going up and up and up. It’s a huge bonus when we hit on a dish that our families really want to see over and over again.

This dish can become vegetarian easily enough by simply leaving out the ground sausage.

Barb