ATK Recipe #35: pesto alla trapanese

Since I’m challenging myself+my husband to make new recipes out of our new cookbooks throughout the year (at least one from each book per month), I decided to do mini-review posts of the recipes we make on the blog.  I will not be posting the recipe (you can get it yourself in whichever book it comes from), but I’ll post a photo (if possible) of our dish made from the recipe as well as a few bullet-point notes.   There’s a category on the blog for these posts called “recipe review 2013.”

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Recipe:  Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto (Pesto alla Trapanese) from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2013, (pages 247-248)

So, I heard about this recipe from Christine, and I’ve been wanting to try it all summer!  My Jelly Bean tomato plants finally have started producing larger quantities at once, so we were able to use them for this recipe.  We were not disappointed!!

• when did we make this?  Tuesday, October 1, for supper
• did we change anything?  I halved the recipe.  I also used a banana pepper rather than a pepperoncini, but I’m pretty sure that the difference it made was minimal (especially in the small amount it was!)
• what did we like?   The fresh (uncooked) tomato sauce was delicious!  Plus, the entire recipe can be made in the time that it takes to cook the linguine!
  
• what didn’t we like?  For my big appetite, I think I need a bit more with the meal, like some chicken.
• will we make it again (any changes in the future)?  Definitely.  This is a perfect summer meal (or farewell-to-summer, in this case) using my garden tomatoes (Jelly Bean variety).  We’ll include some grilled, sliced chicken on top of the pasta next time.