Working for the Weekend

Do you ever feel like you need a weekend to recover from your weekend?  Because I sure do.

I don't know when weekends began to feel so jammed, but between four performances of Love, Loss and What I Wore, working for a bit yesterday, holding auditions for the next show I'm directing, cleaning the house and exercising, I lost my weekend.  Where did it go, and could I have it back please?

The only time I managed to slow down was when I got home from the theatre yesterday.  Free time--what's a girl to do?  Why cook, of course.  David was still hunkered in the living room watching the football game and I had the kitchen all to myself--though to give full credit to David, he cranked out homemade linguine noodles when the game was over.



A good smattering of Pecorino Romano on the pasta is a nice finish.



As an aside, does anyone have a good recipe for wasabi aioli?  The Love, Loss cast went out after the show on Saturday to Ginger, a sort of Asian-fusion restaurant around the corner from the theatre.  I don't love all their food, but they have fabulous appetizers.  The pommes frites with wasabi aioli are to die for.

The following recipe is the compromise for what I had originally intended to make.  Lidia Bastianich's recipe contains pistachios rather than walnuts, but the local grocery store was out of pistachios.  Seriously?



Consider this a tease for Wednesday's post;  that
stuffed eggplant in the background is AH-MAZE-ING.



Play with the seasoning on this.  I wanted a little zip and added dried peperoncini, but they're not necessary.  I added a little more garlic to the original recipe because I thought it didn't have enough oomph;  pare back to eight cloves if you're a little more tentative with your garlic.

This recipe makes quite a thick paste;  once you've finished cooking the pasta to go with it--I recommend either linguine or spaghetti--reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water to thin the sauce to the desired consistency.

Basil-Toasted Walnut Pesto
Inspired by a Recipe from Lidia's Italy in America by Lidia Bastianich

3 cups basil leaves
1 cup Italian parsley sprigs
1 cup walnuts, toasted
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 small peperoncini
8-10 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Pasta cooking water

All all ingredients except for the olive oil and cooking water to the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse the mixture until it is a very thick paste, then drizzle the olive oil in tablespoonful by tablespoonful.  As noted above, this will make quite a thick paste that you will need to thin with either pasta cooking water or even chicken stock.



Isn't that green just gorgeous?

This makes lots of pesto, enough for about two pounds of pasta.  The leftover pesto can be stored in the refrigerator or frozen.