Co-cooking stuffed pastas: sauces!
After all that hard work, it was time for a delicious pasta dinner. But, who wants to make a time-consuming, heavy sauce after spending so much time making the pasta from scratch? Not I (especially because I had been nibbling on cheese all day!) Paul made not one, but two, fast and delicious sauces, starting with pesto.
Pesto
- 1 cup torn fresh basil
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped or smashed
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Toast pine nuts on the stovetop. Then, combine all ingredients except oil in the bowl of a food processor (or, as we did, your immersion blender attachment bowl.) Pulse to break up the basil leaves, garlic, and nuts. Add oil, 1 tbsp at a time, and pulse to combine. Continue processing after final oil addition to reach your preferred consistency. Feel free to add more oil if needed.
The beautiful thing about pesto is that basil grows like crazy in the summertime, and you can have a sauce in under 10 minutes. Pick up a basil plant the next time you’re at the grocery store; you won’t regret it!
The crowd favorite of the evening, though, was the fastest, most basic sauce I’ve ever seen, and perfectly suited to a centerpiece pasta.
Lemon garlic butter
- 6 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is completely melted ,reduce heat to low and add the garlic. The goal is to infuse the butter with the garlic flavor while gently roasting the garlic. Stir the mixture frequently for 5 minutes and reduce heat if the garlic starts to brown. After 5 minutes, remove the sauce from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Use immediately.
Yum. Yum. Yum. Also, add salt. :)
