Cavatappi with Pea Pesto

It all started with a boatload of fresh peas.

It's kind of sad that I've lived in Green Giant Country for over twenty years now and I've never made anything with fresh peas. Not even fresh peas. Well, thanks to my friend, Brenda, I can now cross that off of my bucket, baking, cooking list. She brought me two big bags of fresh peas (ironically from a shipment bound for Green Giant)!

The thing about peas, though, is that they come in their own packaging. This means that I had to put a little work into my finished project. Yup. I shelled peas. Oh, it wasn't hard. I even ended up with a couple of green thumbs. Literally. They were green....and I still can't keep a plant alive... 

Aren't they beautiful?

A few hours and several freezer bags of peas later, I was finished. I had no idea what to do with my peas, however. Boil 'em? Cream 'em? Fry 'em? Really, I hadn't a clue. But modern technology has given us Facebook, and I posed the question to my friends: "What should I make with my peas?"

Hmm...not a huge response. Luckily, my friend Emily from Sugar Plum came up with a few suggestions for me. The one that caught my attention: Pea Pesto! It rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? I had to try it.

I did a little research and found that the kind of peas I had were English Peas. The pods on these are pretty stringy, not suited for stir fry. It was almost a shame to toss all of them...

It turns out that making pea pesto is very similar to making regular pesto. Here, I adapted a recipe I found on epicurious.com. Easy Peasy. <----(sorry--couldn't resist). I changed out the penne pasta for cavatappi and added a few basil leaves, but aside from that, and using fresh peas rather than frozen, the recipe is the same.

Cavatappi with Pea Pesto

Printable Recipe

2 cups fresh peas (or use (1) 10 oz. bag of frozen peas)

2 large garlic cloves

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

several leaves of basil (optional)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 pound cavatappi pasta

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the peas and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain well.

With the food processor running, drop in garlic and finely chop. Turn off motor and add peas, nuts and cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, then process until finely chopped. With motor running, add oil, blending until incorporated.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water (4 quarts) to boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 9-10 minutes. Reserve one cup of the pasta water before draining .

Toss the pasta with the pea pesto and thin as desired with the reserved cooking water.

It's like pesto, but it's also like guacamole. I'll bet if I added cilantro and a little lime juice, I could use this with tortilla chips....as it was, my husband and I were testing it out with a couple of spoons. 

I can think of a few things this pesto would be so good with....French bread, pizza, sandwiches....oh, the possibilities...

I probably could have made the picture look more appetizing, but I was running out of light. On the other hand, wouldn't this be a good dish for St. Patrick's day?

And there you have it. Pea Pesto. Pea Pesto Pasta. Say that real fast five times.....

Green Eggs and Yam

In my quest to use up a boatload of sweet potatoes, I asked my daughter, Taylor, how she would like them prepared. Taylor wanted me to make sweet potato hash browns, but I was afraid that they wouldn’t get very crunchy unless I added a few things. What I finally ended up making looked more like a sweet potato pancake (in fact, I imagine you could just sub the flour for some matzo meal and you would have a nice sweet potato pancake for Passover). Then, because I wanted to make more of a meal out of it, I topped one of the pancakes with an egg. I now had Yam and Eggs. Hee Hee. But wait! St. Patrick’s Day is coming up! Let me bring out my inner Dr. Seuss and present to you the final (and green!) creation:

Green Eggs and Yam

6 Sweet Potato Pancakes
6 poached eggs (not sure how to poach an egg? Click here: How to Poach an Egg
1/4  cup prepared pesto

Simply place a poached egg on the top of each sweet potato pancake and spoon a teaspoon or two of  pesto over the top of each one. Don't like pesto? Spoon a little creamed spinach over the top of the eggs. Delish!

Sweet Potato Pancakes:
Printable Recipe

1 large sweet potato, peeled and shredded (about 4 cups)
½ cup grated sweet onion
1 egg, slightly beaten
¼ cup all purpose flour (add more flour if the mixture is too wet)
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ to ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt

Vegetable oil for frying

Stir together all of the ingredients (except the vegetable oil) until well-blended.

Heat oil (about ½ cup, or enough to cover the bottom of the pan) in a large skillet on high until hot, but not smoking. Reduce the heat to medium/high and drop sweet potato mixture into the pan by ¼ cups (about 3 pancakes per pan; don’t overcrowd). Flatten each pancake slightly with a spatula and fry until browned and crisp on the bottom, about 2 to 3 minutes. Turn pancakes and repeat. If the pancakes start to brown too quickly, turn down the heat to medium. Remove from pan to a paper towel lined plate. Keep warm in a 200 degree oven, if desired. Salt to taste.

As you can see, I still haven't graduated to a food processor. If anyone from Kichenaid is reading this, I would be more than happy to review a model for you..... ;)

These are tasty little things all on their own. I had to pull a few away from my husband, so that I could top them with the eggs.

I tried to turn the eggs green by putting some spinach leaves in the water with the eggs, but it didn't work....I'll have to pay more attention to how they did it on Food Network.

The pesto on this is really good, but I'm thinking I would like the creamed spinach just as well. I will definately make these again.