Penne in Pesto Sauce

On a much needed rainy day after a long hot gruelling summer all that I wanted to do was sit out, watch the rain and sip some wine. So pasta was my obvious choice for dinner - which reminded me of a pesto sauce that I have been wanting to try ever since my visit to Carabbas. Pesto comes from pestâ which means "to pound or to crush". It is for most part made by crushing basil leaves with garlic, salt and pine nuts. sun dried tomatoes are a nice addition to the pesto. 

Anyways for this time around I wanted something that was healthy, quick, easy to make and I was not in the mood to run to the store. I luckily had the basic things that was needed and it was a breeze to put this together. I was ready with my sauteed mushrooms and pesto sauce by the time the pasta was cooked. 

Ingredients:
2 cup - penne pasta
2 cups - fresh baby spinach leaves
1/8 cup and some - pine nuts
1/8 cup - walnuts
1 tsp dried basil (fresh basil works best)
1 Tbs butter
3 Tbs olive oil
garlic 
1 cup chopped mushrooms
salt 
fresh ground black pepper
red pepper flakes


Directions:
Cook the pasta as per the instructions on your pasta box. I normally some salt to the water and let it cook for about 10 minutes. Drain the cooked pasta and set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, saute the chopped mushrooms in 1 Tbs olive oil along with 1 clove of thinly sliced garlic, salt, and some red pepper flakes.
While that is going on add the washed spinach, basil, pine nuts, walnuts, 2 garlic cloves, salt, pepper, butter and 2 Tbs olive oil to a food processor or mixer and grind for a minute. the pesto should be thick but not smooth. 


Toss the pasta, pesto and mushrooms together and enjoy. Told you , it was a breeze :)


bon appetit !!!