Spaghetti with pecan-pistachio pesto and tomato confit

Pesto is a fun way to add variety and color to pasta. You can get creative with it by changing up the greens, the nuts, make it spicy, make it colorful and even add texture. It's hard to mess up, and you can be done in less than half and hour. What's not to love?

Since I almost always stick to the usual basil-pine nut routine, I wanted to add some crunch and flavor to it by way of the pesto and the pistachio. I also thought the tomato confit would be a nice elegant touch.

Ingredients:


Tomato confit
cherry tomatoes- whole or halved
1 tbsp olive oil
some salt

Spaghetti
Cooked wheat spaghetti
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup pecans
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup basil leaves
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
salt

Directions:

1. For the tomato confit, preheat the oven to 320 F. Toss the tomatoes in olive oil and salt and leave them to bake for around 40-45 minutes, checking to see if they're done.

2. For the pesto, grind up the pecan, the pistachios and the basil leaves with the olive oil and process thoroughly. The mixture should be a brownish-green. You can either have it be a smooth mixture, or it can be crunchy depending on your preference.

3. Chop up the onion and garlic and sautee them in an additional tbsp of olive oil. Once the onions have become soft, toss in the pesto, and cook for around 2-3 minutes. Then add the cooked spaghetti to the mixture.

4. Top the spaghetti with the tomato confit and serve. 

Pizza topped with arugula pesto, tomatoes and mozzarella

I typically don't care much for arugula in my salad, but I love arugula pesto. It's strong and has a bit of a kick to it. I thought it would go excellently well with pizza, and it was!

Arugula pesto
pizza dough
1 tomato
5 slices of chunky mozzarella cheese

Top the pizza dough with arugula pesto, and place the tomatoes all over. Top with generous slices of mozzarella cheese. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 F.







Arugula pesto recipe(modified from Martha Schulman's fabulous recipe in the Times)
2 cups fresh arugula
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp walnuts
1/3 cup-1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Drop the garlic in the food processor and finely chop the garlic. Scrape the sides of the food processor, and add the walnuts and grind until the walnuts are finely blended in with the garlic. Finally add the arugula, and drip in the olive oil to form your desired consistency.