Early this morning, Elizabeth Coleman was in her plot picking cherry tomatoes and basil and getting ready for a trip to North Carolina. When I happened by, she gave me a favorite recipe from her mother which she planned to make the first night at the beach. It sounded so good and so easy that I made it for lunch today.
* Pesto (Elizabeth makes her own, but you can also buy it ready-made from Claudio in the Italian Market)
* Pasta (I got something called “festoni conditi” from Claudio’s, which is a big beefy pasta full of nooks and crannies and colored with tomato, spinach, beet, and squid ink powders, but almost any pasta would work. I’m not sure what kind Elizabeth uses — she didn’t say)
* Cherry tomatoes
Cook the pasta till al dente and drain. Melt a generous dollup of pesto into the hot pasta and sprinkle with lots of halved cherry tomatoes. When I tried it for lunch today, I garnished it with a bit of fresh basil from the garden and some toasted pine nuts. It was delicious.