Green noodles, pesto, and a quick appetizer

 

Years ago, I had a friend who fixed lemon spaghetti. The single mother of two, she struggled to keep her budget balanced. She confessed that one night, with a beau coming for supper, she had no money for groceries and simply used what she had in her pantry. The result was spaghetti with lemon butter.

We were in graduate school together, and during that time, I ate a fair number of lemon spaghetti suppers. Fast forward a few years, and I was the single mother of four youngsters who loved pasta. Over the years I’ve changed and adapted the recipe, adding new ingredients one at a time. It’s now a much more complex dish and a family favorite.

Green noodles

1 16-0z. pkg. spinach egg noodles

1 stick butter

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced (I always buy whole and slice them myself)

4 scallions, chopped

1 can quartered artichoke hearts

1 ice-cube size piece of pesto, thawed or 1 Tbsp.

Juice of one lemon

Grated fresh Parmesan

Cook and drain noodles. Melt butter in the skillet. Sauté the mushrooms and scallions in the butter. Stir in artichoke hearts. Add pesto and lemon juice to taste—I like lots; the mushrooms soak up the lemon and are delicious. Add artichoke hearts and noodles and toss to coat. Top with Parmesan. Serve with baguette slices, and you’ve got supper!

Want more recipes that my family enjoys, along with a bit of history of my four kids and me? Check out my cookbook/memoir, Cooking My Way through Life with Kids and Books (Cooking My Way through Life with Kids and Books (Stars of Texas Series): Alter PhD, Dr. Judy: 9781933337333: Books (amazon.com))

A cooking note: if you have an abundance of basil, perhaps in your garden, you can make your own pesto. Pine nuts are traditional, but in a nod to Texas I usually use ground pecans. Here’s a basic recipe:

 

Pesto

2 large cloves garlic

2 c. loosely packed basil leaves  

2 Tbsp. ground pecans

2 tsp. lemon or lime juice

2 Tbsp. parmesan

2 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

⅔ c. good olive oil

Process garlic and basil until finely chopped. Add remaining ingredients except olive oil and process until smooth. Then, with motor still running, add olive oil. I toss it over pasta, cooked potatoes, and fresh green beans, whatever comes to mind. Here’s the hint though: store it in the freezer in an ice cube tray, so you can pop out one cube at a time.

I’m on a pesto kick as I write this, so here’s a quick appetizer: Take a log of plain goat cheese, either 4 oz or 11 oz. depending on the number of guests, and carefully split it lengthwise. It will want to crumble, and you may have to patch it back together. Spread pesto over one split surface and reattach the other half of the log. Roll in toasted sesame seeds and serve with crackers.