Pesto!

Simple elegant alternative to Marinara for Pasta, Pizza and bread. It goes really well with whole wheat pasta and makes it a LOT more interesting to consume.

Time : 30 min
Serves : 2

What you need : 

1 Cup Arugula : You can get fresh arugula at Safeway/Whole Foods or you could grow your own ;)

1 Cup Spinach

1/3 cup Walnut : Un-toasted, if you get roasted walnuts, you can skip step one

2 cloves garlic

1/3 Cup Shredded Parmesan -  Crucial to get get quality Parmesan or Pecorino. Don't use dried stuff

3-4 tbsp Olive oil

Red Chili flakes

1 tbsp Fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup pasta water or regular water

Lets get going : 

Toast the walnuts slightly on medium heat. 

Peel the garlic cloves

In a food processor, combine toasted walnuts, garlic, arugula, spinach, parmesan cheese and a dash of salt and pepper

Slowly add olive oil from the top when mixing the ingredients together on low speed

Continue until uniformly ground, you are looking for granular texture and not paste like texture, there is no need to add any water

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat

Add chili flakes as desired, listen to them sizzle, don't leave them on for long

Put the Pesto mixture onto the skillet, stand back, its going to splatter

(NOTE: if you wait too long the chili flakes will turn black and give a very bad taste, so do this within a few seconds)

Mix around a little bit and add water or Pasta water and mix

Let it settle down for a minute and add salt and fresh ground pepper

Mix the lemon juice mix, and then turn off the heat.

If you are making Pasta, mix the strained cooked pasta onto the skillet directly

Mix until Pasta is evenly coated and every piece has some Pesto on it

Garnish with a little bit of fresh parmesan