What's The Name of this Dish I Made Up?

Cafe Society
1

Last night I threw together ingredients in an experiment born of necessity, which turned out with results quite a bit more positive than expected.

It was the day before payday…

What I did was:

I boiled up some penne nodles.
I heated up a very small amount of olive oil in a saucepan,
I put in some minced garlic and basil.
I then put just enugh of this oil/garlic/basil stuff into the noodles to coat them lightly.
I put this in a bowl, and over it I sprinkled a whole lot of cheese (the dried parmesan/romano stuff in the green cylinder…) and a little bit of salt. I also sprinkled some more basil over the finished product.

I thought it would be edible. It turned out to be… kind of delicious.

What wheel did I just reinvent?

-FrL-

2

It’s basically penne pesto.

3

Yep, looks like it!: http://www.starfishcons.com/pages/sfpsto.htm

Thanks,

-Kris

4

According to the Wikipedia on Pesto Pesto - Wikipedia it looks like I made a “Pistou” which is a french variation on Pesto which has no pine nuts in it–just oil, basil and garlic.

-FrL-

5

…pre-payday meal or not, it sounds delicious.

6

As you might already have guessed. . .toasting up some pine nuts would make that even tastier. Get raw ones, and toast them in a pan until they turn golden brown.

You might also chop up some sun dried tomatoes and cook them in the oil a little too.

And, the day after payday, you might get a half a pound of shrimp and cook that in the oil for a little before tossing in the smaller ingredients. Or, cook the shrimp on your grill and just toss it all together at the end.

Later, you can start worrying about adding cream, and vodka.

A good OP that points out how amazingly easy and tasty it is to eat right. . .garlic, basil, oil & cheese.

I’d change a “little bit of salt” to “lots of salt & freshly ground pepper”. Perfect.

I’d probably have a crisp white wine with that. . .a Sauvignon Blanc, maybe.

7

I generally have everything on hand for pesto except for pine nuts. I do, however, always have a selection of other nuts around, and have made excellent pestos with toasted almonds, pistachios, and walnuts.

I also occasionally use a mix of fresh spinach and basil (I think this is called winter pesto…any chefs know?). Adds an extra healthy kick, and is just as tasty as all basil pesto.