Butter Bean & Arugula Pesto Pasta

Okay, assuming you made the same Cilantro Walnut Pesto that I did this week and have about a cup of it left over, here's what to do:

Cook up some bowtie pasta because it's the cutest.  As soon as it's done, run it under cold water to chill it.

Mix up lots of that pesto with a can of butter beans (I like the Bioitalia organic butter beans from my co-op, but any butter beans would do.  Lima beans or cannellini beans would be good, too).

Combine the beans & pesto with the pasta and a few giant handfuls of fresh arugula.

This pasta & bean salad is super fresh and green as it can be!  And I can tell you from experience that it's even better the next day for breakfast.

Cilantro Walnut Pesto on Snap Peas

I have a little problem with not being able to weed out useful plants from my garden, even when they're interfering with other useful plants.  Last year it was dill.  This year it's cilantro.

So I cut the tops off of a 4x4 garden bed FULL of cilantro and brought it inside to make something with.  Here's what happened:

• I peeled 3 cloves of garlic
• I soaked & washed the bundle of cilantro
• I zested and juiced an orange
• I threw the garlic, 1 cup of walnuts, a handful-sized hunk of Sartori parmesan, the cilantro, orange zest & juice, sea salt, and a long glug of olive oil into the food processor.  

• Then I tasted it and realized I was going to want to eat the entire container of this pesto tonight.  
• So I packed 1 cup of it away in a canning jar in the freezer.

• Then I thought about how good this pesto would be tossed with the snap peas in my fridge.  
• Then I ate a whole lot of snap peas.