Thursday 13 June 2013

Pasta with pesto, oven roasted asparagus and feta

Since I moved away from home, oh... 7 1/2-ish years ago, I have really acquired a love for cooking and food in general.  Looking up recipes has become a past-time, and being in the kitchen is a truly fun thing for me. I am most definitely a visual learner, and sometimes just seeing a picture of a dish inspires me. Which is what happened with the meal I am going to share with you today. I saw a picture on the cover of a magazine that really caught my eye. I immediately saw ingredients I love all in one dish that looked so appetizing. I made a mental note of all the delicious things I saw and knew what I was cooking for dinner that night- pasta with pesto and oven roasted vegetables. This is why cooking is such a wonderful thing- you can take inspiration from a picture, or just experimenting and putting together ingredients you love. Make it to your taste. When you find a great recipe, don't dismiss it because it has something in it you don't like. Swap out ingredients you don't prefer for something else. There are no rules.

Here's what I used:

- tri-coloured vegetable pasta
- cherry tomatoes 
- asparagus
- shallots
- feta cheese
- sliced almonds
- lemon juice
- salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Boil water for your pasta. I generally cook my pasta using the time suggested on the box. I find it cooks perfectly al dente.

Ever since I started growing my own basil, I can't even bring myself to buy store bought pesto anymore. It is very easy to make yourself, and once you taste pesto with your own fresh basil, you will never buy it from the store again, I promise. So here's what you'll need:

- big bunch of basil 
- pine nuts
- parmesan cheese
- garlic
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt & pepper




To be honest, I've never really measured any of the ingredients when I've made pesto. As long as you have enough basil to make the amount you want, and olive oil to get the right consistency, all the other ingredients just go according to your taste. And if you really don't trust your instincts, you could find a million recipes online using the same ingredients. But what I do is take out my trusty magic bullet, put in all my basil, a little handful of pine nuts and grate about the same amount of parmesan, 1 garlic clove, and some salt and pepper. 




Add a couple big splashes of olive oil to start; you'll see that your blender won't work properly if there isn't enough liquid. Keep adding little splashes at a time until it blends everything and you have a smooth, pesto-like consistency.


HASHTAG NO FILTER, yo. Look at that colour!




Now you want to slice your cherry tomatoes in half, slice 1 shallot (or 2 if they're small), and break up your asparagus. Hold your asparagus right at the stem, snap it, and that will take off the end you don't want to eat. Keep breaking your asparagus, making bite-sized pieces. They snap very easily. If you've never done this before, it's quite fun and amusing. ...No? Just me?





Now that you have your veggies on a cookie sheet, drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over top (about 2 tbsp of each), and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop in the oven for about 10 minutes. 

After your pasta and vegetables are cooked, mix your pesto and vegetables in with your pasta. At the very end, add in as much feta cheese and almonds as you'd like.





And voila! Bon appetit.