4-5 handfuls green beans, trimmed
2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 Tbsp pesto (I used 4 pesto cubes)
2 heirloom tomatoes, peeled and diced
8 oz pasta
olive oil
water
Cut the green beans into bite sized pieces and steam until no longer crunchy. Drain.
Bring a whole lotta water to a boil. When it's boiling, add 1 tsp olive oil and the pasta. Stir to keep from sticking. Cook until pasta is no longer crunchy.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and stir until golden. Add the green beans and pesto and stir until heated. Turn the heat off and stir in the tomatoes.
When pasta is done, drain and mix with 1 tsp more olive oil. Top with green bean mixture and serve!
Ingredient Notes: I used homemade pesto that I'd frozen in an ice cube tray, but you could just as easily use store-bought pesto. For the pasta, I gave this gluten-free lentil-flour pasta I found at New City Market a whirl. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste, but the texture is excellent, and there's 13 grams of protein for every 2 ounces (which is fan-freaking-phenomenal).
Homemade Cheese-Free Pesto
It's time for our basil plants to meet their Maker, so we whipped up a large batch of this over the weekend. You kind of have to eyeball the proportions here and taste it until it feels right. I know that's maddening, but I'm not sure there's any other way to make this recipe. Trust your inner pesto sense!basil leaves, washed (2-3 bunches)
garlic cloves (3-4)
salt (a moderate sprinkling)
pine nuts (a large handful)
nutritional yeast (a tablespoon or two)
white miso (a few heaping spoonfuls)
Chop up the basil leaves as finely as you can. Set aside. Put the garlic, pine nuts and salt in a mortar and pestle and bash until it forms a thick gritty paste. Add the basil leaves and bash some more. Add the nutritional yeast and miso and stir. If you like, you can use a hand blender to even out the texture and make it less clumpy. You may also add olive oil to taste, but I usually think it's perfect as is.
Use immediately or spoon into an ice cube tray and freeze into little cute pesto cubes, then seal in a Ziploc bag until needed.
