Deconstructed Pesto Pasta
This is the very lazy way of making pasta with a pesto sauce! Leftover garlic and oil pasta gets a topping of torn basil leaves, toasted pine nuts, and shaved cheese, for the pesto flavor without the food processor sauce. Originally served as part of: Mystery Pasta.
Ingredients
- 2 cups leftover, frozen, garlic and oil spaghetti pasta
- 2 tablespoons frozen pine nuts nuts
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 10 leaves large, fresh basil (cleaned )
- wedge Pecorino romano cheese (Locatelli)
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
We start by defrosting the leftover pasta in a large bowl, covered, in the microwave, on the defrost setting. Meanwhile, we toast the nuts on a piece of foil in the toaster oven at 350°. It takes a few minutes for the nuts to brown lightly, we need to be careful, of course, not to burn them!
When the nuts are toasted, we remove them from the toaster oven and let cool. We heat the pasta in the microwave for a minute at a time on full power until hot.
We serve each portion and top with pine nuts, drizzle with olive oil, tear on the basil, and freshly grate some cheese on top with our peeler. We finish at the table with freshly ground black pepper.
Ingredients
- 2 cups leftover garlic and oil spaghetti (frozen)
- 2 tbsp frozen pine nuts
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 10 large leaves fresh basil
- Pecorino Romano wedge (Locatelli)
- black pepper (freshly ground)
Instructions
What's a kid job?
A Kid job is a step kids can help with, with a grown-up nearby, not one they do on their own. Every kid is different, so go by what your child can do rather than by age. Roughly:
- Little ones (about 2 to 4) can stir, pour in ingredients a grown-up has measured, tear lettuce, wash vegetables and sprinkle toppings.
- Older kids (about 5 to 8) can also measure and level, crack eggs, whisk, roll and cut out dough, and put things together.
- Bigger kids can read the recipe aloud, keep track of the timer, and take on more of the cooking as they're ready.
Steps with a knife, microplane, skewers, stove, oven, grill or hot oil, or with raw meat, poultry or seafood, are marked Grown-up. Kids can still watch those, from a safe distance.
Thaw the pasta, covered, in a large bowl in the microwave. Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts on foil in a 350°F toaster oven a few minutes, until lightly browned; watch so they don’t burn.
Let the nuts cool. Heat the pasta on full power, 1 minute at a time, until hot.
Kid job
Top each portion with pine nuts, a drizzle of oil, torn basil and cheese shaved with a peeler. Finish with black pepper at the table: all the flavors of pesto, no food processor.