Winter Pesto with Pasta

Snow Days. Mid-week, they’re life-slowing brakes that kids crave and grown-ups part-welcome, part-dread.

But if snowy days are good for snowboot and sled sales, snow days can also be gentle reminders of why the place we most want to be is called ‘home’ and how little control, really, we exert in our lives.

So give in. Be with the snow.

Once the flakes begin to transform our familiar neighborhoods into other-worlds, stop, watch, listen.

And as the white mantle muffles and then silences, fill a pot with cider, pull out the Monopoly box, dust off that get-around-to-it-soon novel by the bed. Make soup, bake cookies. If you must, clean the basement, organize a closet.

But for a few hours, a day or two at most, your life belongs to the snow.

Soon enough, it will be yours again. The plow will move through, the drive will need shoveling. And life, again, will move full speed.

ALANNA's TIPS WINTER PESTO is a natural with hot pasta. But how about as a pizza topping? Or smeared on steaks sizzled on the grill? Or stirred into scrambled eggs? Or spooned into vegetable soup? Or spread thin on nutty toast? Or tossed with roasted cauliflower? The list is as long as your imagination! Bags of pre-toasted nuts are available now, priced the same or slightly higher. Or toast your own at 400F for 5 – 10 minutes but keep a close eye on the oven for the shift from toast to burnt happens in a blink.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Have a versatile pasta sauce in your repertoire? Send a recipe to e-mail.

WINTER PESTO with PASTA

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time-to-table: 30 minutes
Makes 1½ cups pesto (enough for 1½ pounds pasta)

• Dried or fresh pasta (2 ounces per serving)

PESTO
• 1 cup toasted walnuts
• About 5 ounces (4 cups) fresh spinach
• 1 cup (or more) good grated Parmesan
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Pepper to taste
• 3 – 4 tablespoons good olive oil

Bring salted water to a boil. It takes 20 minutes to make the pesto, so time the pasta so it’ll finish cooking then. Drain, return pasta to hot pan.

Blend all pesto ingredients except olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth, cleaning sides occasionally. Add olive oil a tablespoon at a time until pesto achieves consistency of creamy peanut butter.

Toss pesto with hot pasta, about ½ cup for every 8 ounces of pasta.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE (4 side dish servings from ½ cup pesto, 8 ounces pasta) Per Serving: 351Cal; 14g Tot Fat; 43g Carb; 3g Fiber; 247mg Sodium; 61mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 8 points (Pesto only) Per Tablespoon: 67 Cal; 6g Tot Fat; 1g Carb; 1g Fiber; 118mg Sodium; 4mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 2 points

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