Pesto 1

Well then, time just flies, doesn't it? Anyways, today I'd like to talk about pesto. This was inspired by a pasta-dinner box I saw at Target one night, long ago. It was for chilled pasta salad, something I had never heard of before. Then, that weekend, Ina Garten made lukewarm/chilled pasta salad on her show The Barefoot Contessa. I usually enjoy her recipes (hold the New England blue-blood), and a couple weeks after this I decided to give it a go. I've made pesto before, with limited success, and this wasn't much different. However, it is a good option for dinner on a hot summer night after you've either been popping popcorn or running up and down stairs carrying vaccum cleaners all the live long day. It is also very, very simple.

1) Boil some pasta. Spiral/Rotini is the best to use, because it holds the pesto sauce in the...wedges? Whatever you call it. Anywho, I rinsed mine very fast after it was done, but I retained some of the liquid for the sauce.

2) Cook some peas, or other vegetables. I like peas, and I would have included broccoli, but we had none. I'd say you should stick with greens, for both taste and aesthetic purposes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the pesto police, so do what you want.

3) Make the pesto. If you haven't made pesto before, here is how it goes. Take a lot (1 1/2 cup) of basil leaves, 2 tbsp pine nuts, a crushed clove of garlic, olive oil, and put this all in a food processor. Process 'em. The garlic is important, because if you forget it, you'll realize it while sitting in the break room a few days later as you eat the leftovers for dinner and you will feel silly. Grate a whole bunch of parmesan cheese into the pesto, and keep adding olive oil if it's too thick. If you want something creamy, really amp up the cheese and add the olive oil until you have the consistency of peanut butter.

4) Mix the above together. It is pretty tasty.


There will be another entry regarding pesto, once I upload the photos. Until then, here is a photo of my birthday cake. If you know me, this will be kind of funny. I don't know who put the hear there, it was most likely my sister. She likes those kinds of things. I thought it was pretty neat. The things they can do with bundt pans these days!