Tennis Anyone?

I found the cutest pasta recently. They look like little tennis rackets.


And that is what they are called.


My garden was full of basil and I had just made some oven roasted tomatoes.


Time for pesto pasta! Following is my recipe for this dish:

Pesto

4 full cups of fresh basil. I use the stems too. Why not? They are full of flavor.

4 cloves of peeled garlic

Fresh ground pepper and sea salt to taste

Juice from 1/2 lemon

6 tablespoons of pine nuts.

Place all of the above ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it is all diced equally.

Then as the processor is processing....drizzle in 1 cup of good olive oil.

Scrape this into a bowl and stir in 1/2 cup of grated romano cheese and 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese. Stir to blend thoroughly.


Pesto Pasta

After boiling the pasta, drain and reserve 1 cup of the pasta liquid. Please make sure to salt the water before boiling the pasta. I had my roasted tomatoes but you could use some halved cherry tomatoes. After draining the pasta I mixed it with the tomatoes and their juices. Then I stirred in the pesto. Then add enough of the reserved pasta water until the mixture is creamy. Adding the tomatoes makes a smoother pesto pasta dish. You could skip the tomatoes altogether if you wish. This can be eaten cold, room temp or warm.



My first two eggplants (Ichiban)!