The Suggestion Boxer Cooks: Homemade Walnut-Spinach Pesto

I'm pretty proud of this dish that I came up with today using seasonal foods! It's one of the easiest, most delicious meals I've made in months. It was inspired by a former roommate who once made fresh pasta with parsley pesto.

It's a nice way to get rid of a lot of spinach fast... like if you buy the extra large tub of spinach like I did and then don't know how to use it before it goes bad. Plus, spinach and walnuts are a lot cheaper than basil and pine nuts in traditional pesto.

I cooked up two portabella mushrooms, steamed a bunch of asparagus and boiled some Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper Pappardelle while I was making the pesto. You could fix any veggies, meat, pizza, lasagna or pasta with this sauce, but I think it's suited to the lemon pepper pasta quite well.

Fresh Walnut-Spinach Pesto

1 handful of walnuts**

3 cloves garlic

2-3 handfuls of fresh spinach

6-7 leaves of fresh basil

Extra virgin olive oil

Crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese

Crush walnuts and garlic in the food processor. Add spinach and basil until finely chopped. Drizzle olive oil while the processor is running until the mixture becomes smooth (it really doesn't need a lot to get to the right consistency... maybe 1/3 - 1/2 cup?... the more fat you add, the richer it will taste, obvs). Throw in salt, pepper and crushed red pepper as you like.

Mix veggies, pasta and pesto together and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Conventional pesto has the Parm already in it, but I like putting it on at the end because it helps me monitor my cheese intake.

**Sorry about the lack of exact measurements... but you know I can't be bothered to measure things in the kitchen.