Pasta with Pesto

27 Mar

Pasta with Pesto

Pasta with Pesto is a super flavorful dish, that is an excellent way to welcome the spring.  Using fresh ingredients makes this pasta shine.  The combination of pasta, potatoes, and pesto may seem like it wouldn’t work, but it does, creating a hearty dish pungent with the flavor of basil.

Every now and then I am asked to review a new cookbook or product.  I can’t resist saying yes to these requests, it is a great way for me to try out new things and I love sharing them with all my Hungry Wife fans.  This pasta dish comes from the cookbook, Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner?, by Lisa Caponigri.  Its an Italian cookbook, full of traditional dishes.  I love the way it is set up.  Recipes are divided into 52 different menus, one for every Sunday of the year.  Total there are 250 recipes.  Each Sunday dinner menu serves 8-10, and consists of an antipasto (usually a crostini to pass a the table), a primo (first course; this is almost always a pasta, but it can also be a risotto, polenta, or a soup), a secondo (call it the main course), served with a single contorno (side dish), and, finally, dessert.  Since it is just me, my husband, and my son who doesn’t count as a serving size yet, I’m only making one of these dishes at a time.

Pasta with Pesto (or Pasta Alla Ligure) is a secondo in the cookbook, but for us it made an awesome dinner served with a nice crusty bread.

The idea of a weekly Sunday dinner with the family is great.  I think more people need to participate in this ritual.  It is an excellent way to keep a close knit family, and share love of each other and food.  I wish we lived closer to our families so that we could participate in this tradition, but it truly makes me appreciate the time we get to spend together the few times a year that we gather.

I never used to make my own pesto.  I would take the easy way out, and purchase a pre-made pesto thinking it wouldn’t make much of a difference.  It’s not bad to do this, but I cannot emphasize enough how delicious a homemade pesto is, and how easy it is to whip up.  Take the few minutes it takes, and make your own.  You will be amazed.


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