Fettuccine With Merguez and Mint Pesto Recipe (2024)

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For a vegetarian, what would be a good substitute for the merguez?

If you are unable to find the sausage in your market, just get ground lamb and use Melissa Clark's recipe to make the sausage: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012449.

Merguez IS Moroccan lamb sausage.

I made this as described (except farfalle, instead of linguine, since that's what I had on hand) and a few thoughts. 1) I'd chop up olives, as prefer their saltiness more distributed than whole flavor bombs, and 2) I thought I wouldn't use extra pesto, but very necessary. I might just add it all in, rather than add bit by bit at the end.

Grilled aubergine?

I made this tonight with some minor modifications and it was really delicious. it's a great, easy recipe. I substituted Moroccan lamb sausage from our local butcher for the Merguez, added some of our parsley to the mint, and used a Moroccan spice mix instead of straight cumin. Didn't have any fettucine so I used campanelle which held the sauce really well. YUM!

In Europe (Italy, Catalonia and Spain) we use basil leaves instead of mint leaves for the pesto sauce. To get a more consistent pesto sauce we add grinded parmegianno and/or pecorino cheese

I have made this many times, and it's always a pleasure. Have settled on my favorite tweaking: finely chopped preserved lemon to finish, and the mint pesto made with feta, pine nuts, and jalapeño.

This recipe is perfection. Don’t sub for the merguez sausage if at all possible—the flavor combo with the mint pesto is inspired. This is one of my favorite pasta recipes that I have made, and that is saying something.

I used vegan sausage from Whole Foods (Italian style) and because the sausage is pre-flavored left out the sundried tomatoes, but still made the pesto and added olives to the pasta along with the pesto.

My spouse, alas, is not fond of olives.
For the salty tang that the pitted Kalamata olives provide in the original recipe, I substituted drained Moroccan capers.
To my taste the flavors seem to work, and there's the convenience bonus of not having to pit and chop the olives.

Basil pesto works beautifully if you don’t have mint, and a can of crushed or diced tomatoes instead of sun dried. D’Artagnon meats sells a delicious merguez sausage if you can’t find any locally. Great recipe!

This has the potential for spring boarding. Mint pesto was VERY good - I used pistachios instead of pine nuts due to my freezer supply. Next time, I’m going to try harder to find spinach fettuccini. (Spring boarding idea: use chorizo, mint/cilantro pesto, castelveltrano olives.)

Finally made this after years of intending to do so. Thank you to those who suggested capers and preserved lemon as my husband will not eat olives and some brininess is needed. For those who queried vegetarian substitutes for merguez, I would suggest using a plant-based protein alternative to lamb in a merguez recipe, whilst lamb has a distinctive flavor, the seasonings in merguez are equally important. Hope that helps!

5 stars, even though I didn't fully follow the recipe. Wow! The flavors work so well together, and I even cheated to use store bought (fresh) pesto with torn fresh mint leaves added during cooking. Also didn't have enough of the sun-dried tomatoes in oil on hand, so mixed what I had with part of a small can of diced tomatoes. Cut the pasta amount in half, because I almost always disagree with NYT's ratio of sauce:noodles. We loved it!

this was yummy and out of the ordinary. Nice change of pace with classic north African flavors.It will go into rotation for me.

The grocery store was out of mint so I made it with cilantro, it was really great.

This was good, but agree with others that it was a little heavy. The mint pesto was surprisingly pleasant - I had thought it would be too overpowering, but it wasn't.

Didn’t have all ingredients so I used 2 heaped tablespoons of (store bought) capsicum pesto instead of making pesto.Also used roast capsicum instead of sundried tomatoes. Amazing! Now a fast family favourite.

Super tasty but I didn't add the olives. I did add some almonds and some currants which improves the texture and gives it more dried fruit.The ordering of this recipe can be hard to follow so don't forget the add pasta water to the onion/sausage mix, it finishes cooking the sausage. I would recommend also covering the pans for a few minutes at this stage then boiling off the remaining liquid.

So delicious that it barely fed four. Made as recipe calls for except to substitute pistachios for pine nuts. Next time cut down the oil in pesto. For those who dislike lamb, I found merguez is sometimes made with beef. Because I have ground beef and this recipe is so savory, I might try it that way. If you love lamb, make this. Make it a staple. Adding preserved lemons at serving as others suggest, is a good idea. Mint + merguez = perfection.

This recipe is perfection. Don’t sub for the merguez sausage if at all possible—the flavor combo with the mint pesto is inspired. This is one of my favorite pasta recipes that I have made, and that is saying something.

I used Indian mint chutney instead of making pesto - the dish was rich enough without the pine nuts. This shortcut really turned it into an extremely quick meal - excellent.

Definitely greasing off the lamb next time, used paper towels in a bowl. Super dish

Had tons of leftover parley, so replaced the mint with it. Added some Turkish sheep milk cheese for serving. The response was the question "Do you want to spend the next lockdown with me, please?", so I think it went pretty well.

Took suggestion of another review and added a small jalapeño and some feta cheese to the pesto - this was excellent! Very easy and delicious, will definitely make again.

I was looking forward to this recipe as I love merged sausage. I followed the recipe to a T with a small addition of lemon zest, which offered some brightness. All in all, although I found the flavors good, as a main course, the flavors are VERY intense and after a small portion, we were "done". As an appetizer, I can imagine this leaving guests wanting more, but as a main course, it is too rich.