Pasta with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans

A bottled jar each of basil pesto and roasted peppers turns this dish into an easy weeknight meal.  But if you feel inclined, it’s always better to make your own.  Roasting peppers is as simple as lightly coating seeded bell pepper halves with olive oil and cooking skin-side down at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  If you want, place the roasted peppers into a covered bowl for 10 minutes to steam, then remove the skins.  Otherwise, just chop, with the skins on.

The combination of ingredients here is easy to love—a bowl full of pure comfort.   That just happens to make use of summer’s finest produce.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 pound small Yukon gold or red potatoes, halved
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pound fettucine or linguine
  • 3/4 pound green beans, stems removed
  • 1/2 cup pesto (homemade or store-bought) plus more to taste
  • 1/3 cup roasted peppers (freshly roasted or store-bought), cut into small pieces
  • 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Toss potatoes with olive oil to coat and roast in a 400 degree oven until tender (about 25 minutes).
  2. Bring a large saucepan full of salted water to boil.   Add pasta and boil until noodles are within 4-5 minutes of being fully cooked.  Add beans and cook for 4 minutes.  Reserve one cup of pasta water, then drain the pasta and beans.
  3. Transfer to a large bowl with potatoes and about 1/2 cup pesto.  Gently toss mixture together to combine.  Add more pesto and some of the reserved pasta water as needed to fully coat the noodles.  Fold in the peppers and tomatoes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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