Quick Basil and Hazelnut Pesto Lunches
It's seriously freezing in New York right now! Fortunately, I only have to go into Manhattan to work away from my home office for one day this week. Unfortunately, that day is upon me tomorrow.
While I have been feasting on leftovers from my holiday extravagances and picking at stuff from the freezer all week, I had to put my nose to the grindstone this evening and pull something together to bring for lunch tomorrow.
And by "put my nose to the grindstone," I mean buy absolutely zero groceries and whip up pesto and pasta in 25 minutes.
Planning!
I make pesto a lot... I often have leftover herbs or greens. I'm rarely without a chunk of parmesan in the fridge. I always have nuts in the freezer. And I usually have half a box of pasta waiting to be enjoyed. This was the case today, when I had basil in the fridge after making risotto as well as tapenade for New Year Eve. I had two choices of pasta in the cupboard, and went with the fun Italian Trio, because... why not?
Here's the nutritional breakdown from Fitbit...
Groceries I had on hand... all of them!
- pasta
- basil
- chopped hazelnuts
- olive oil
- garlic
- salt
- pepper
Groceries I had to buy... none of them!
Cooking!
Pesto in general comes together as quickly as it takes to boil the water for the pasta. First, the parmesan goes into the processor bowl in smallish chunks, for grating. Then I add the garlic (rough chopped) and the nuts (also rough chopped) and blend those in. Then, the herbs/greens. Then the oil. Finally, I taste it, add salt and pepper depending on how it's come together, and wait to make the pasta.
When the pasta is done, I drain it but not thoroughly (some of that cooking water comes in handy to get the pesto to spread!), dump in the pesto, give it a vigorous stir, and DONE!
Lunch tomorrow is sorted, and I won't have to cook again until I do my batch cooking for next week. Bonus: I used the basil up before it turned sad!
