Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce

Oh, September, where did the time go?  It seems like you just got here, but here we are at the end of the month and I still have so many cooking club recipes to turn out.  So this weekend saw three Sweet as Pie picks, starting with my pick for the month, Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce.  I just love pesto.  I remember the first time I ever had pasta with pesto, and it changed my life.  I’m completely serious.  Anyway, this recipe was simple and easy – perfect for a weeknight meal.  Here’s how it came together:

First, make your own pesto.  Sure, you could cheat and use pre-made pesto from the grocery store, but it will not taste as bright and you won’t be able to tell all of your friends that you made your own pesto.  With pine nuts and everything.

Start with fresh basil and then add parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper.Whirr away with your processor and slowly add in the extra virgin olive oil.  Or, be like me, and since your food processor is currently the foundation of an intricately packed closet full of your kitchen appliances and cookware, just add the olive oil all at once to your mini chopper.  Works just fine.

Beautiful pesto. Taste and adjust your seasonings – Phillip and I may have had several tastes, you know, just to be really, really sure we had the salt level right.

Meanwhile, boil some pasta.  The recipe calls for 12 oz. of pasta, but most of the pasta here comes packaged in 16 oz. boxes.  I didn’t want to dilute the sauce, so I just use about 3/4 of the box.  In retrospect I should have cooked the whole box and then just reserved some of the plain pasta to make a quick pasta salad for lunch this week.  Oh well, lesson learned.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better than fresh pesto, add some cream and a little butter to a small saucepan.

Once heated, stir in all of the pesto and a little more parmesan cheese.When the pasta is done and drained, just mix it all together.  PW says to add some chopped tomato, but I didn’t because I didn’t feel like it.  I don’t feel like I missed out in the taste department, but the tomatoes would have added some nice color.

So yummy.

This took hardly any time at all to pull together, and the final dish was so tasty.  It had a lot of flavor without being too heavy.  We both really liked it and will definitely make it again.  You should make it too.  Make pesto, change your life.