pasta with pistachio pesto

The garden, despite the random gopher appearance, is doing pretty well. Along with beans, carrots, collard greens, and red chard, we have beets. Lately, our preferred way of eating beets is in a salad.

Did you know that you can wrap beets up in aluminum foil and roast them in your oven? And that you don't even have to peel them first? Or cut them up? And after they're done, the skins easily slip off. This was news to me, but now I'm a huge fan. I roasted the beets for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees, and after they cooled off, I effortlessly peeled off the skin. I also roasted pearl onions and quartered mushrooms, and Drew and I served them on top of spinach. We've never eaten pearl onions, but Drew was suddenly inspired (by what, I have no idea) to roast them.

Drew and I like to try out new recipes, and the results usually fall into 3 categories: 1) so good we should definitely make it again; 2) good, but not good enough to make again; 3) disappointing. It turns out there is a 4th category: surprisingly good. Last night we made pasta with pistachio pesto, and it turned out a lot better than we expected. Not that we expected the results to be disappointing; we just didn't think this dish was going to be so good. 

The recipe is from Food and Wine, and it's super simple and quick to put together. The pesto is made up of pistachios, garlic, olive oil, and mint, processed in the food processor and then mixed with grated pecorino. Instead of orecchiette, we used trottole. Normally, we eat whole wheat pasta, but sometimes we shake things up a bit and we happened to be at Target, where it is sold (it's a Target brand of pasta). 

Drew and I enjoyed this dish a lot, and we couldn't stop raving about it. With a few bites remaining, Drew declared that he was stuffed and I wasted no time polishing off his leftovers. In my defense, I had run a half marathon earlier in the day, and if there is ever a time to finish Drew's leftovers, it's on a day when I've run 13.1 miles. Make this dish, and you'll understand.