Pasta with New Potatoes, Green Beans and Pesto

by Amy

Substitions: None!
Rating: 9

Full disclosure: I did not actually eat this. I would have loved to, obviously, I am a sucker for plates of green food, but I'm off the parmesan. I mostly just wanted to make my own pesto because believe it or not, despite mixing almost exclusively with middle-class people who work in publishing, I have never done so before.

This recipe makes up a whole jam jar of pesto. I took some time between the pesto making and pasta cooking to admire my homemade jam jar of pesto. I considered how useful it could be in other situations, sitting in the fridge for emergency weeknight dinners. I felt useful and smug. A few observations on the pesto making:

1. I can see that this is potentially cheaper than buying your own pesto: IF you have a herb garden. Otherwise, not. Maybe even more expensive.

2. It was quick! I just threw the ingredients into the food processor and, well I think the technical term is "wazzed it up"?

3. Hugh calls for leaves only, not stalks, on the herb front. He did not explain why, so in went the stalks. It's all getting wazzed up anyway.

Considering how much olive oil I had to glug in to get it to the right consistency, I assumed I wouldn't need to use my whole jam jar of pesto. I did though. In bed later, I will probably work out the number of calories per serving of this, which is the only mental arithmetic I am capable of doing, and it will bring on a panic attack.

Once the pesto was made the rest was very straightforward indeed. Slicing the new potatoes so thin seemed a bit faffy but it meant they cooked in the same time as the pasta so it was an efficient move in the end. The green beans went into the same pot seven minutes in: bonus points for reduced washing up, after I've spattered pesto everywhere. Then it's just a matter of mixing the pesto in and grating some cheese on top.

I had to leave the score in Stu's hands, and he scored this higher than he's scored anything yet. He said he was pleased to be eating something he recognised for a change. Here he is enjoying his pasta and pesto:

There's loads left over which I'm thinking will make good lunchbox fare. Next time I'll try it with less oil, adding some water instead, and without parmesan to make it Amy friendly. I can't pretend I wasn't jealous. It smelt amazing!