Pesto Presto

Pesto and pastes have been on my mind. I had a few bashes at hummus making earlier in the summer, which nearly blew up my hand blender. Great fun though! Following that I have been intrigued about making other bean pastes (apparently hummus = chickpea, so the term cannot be carried into other bean genres). White bean "hummus" sounds tasty, perhaps with paprika and garlic in vegetarian fusion food version of fabada asturiana.

Hunger and desperate times lead us back to pasta al pesto. And with fresh pesto it is so tasty! I am thinking- what about a green pea pesto?

Here is a pesto recipe (from smitten kitchen) that I would love to try:
Linguine with Tomato-Almond Pesto [Pesto Trapenese]
Adapted from Gourmet
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1 large handful fresh basil leaves
1 to 2 large garlic cloves
Several sprinkles of sea salt
6 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound linguine

In a large skillet, sauté the almonds in a little olive oil until toasted. Let cool, then blend them in a food processor or blender until they are in coarse pieces. (“The size of orzo,” the original recipe suggests.) Scoop them out of the processor and set them aside.

Put the basil, garlic and a few pinches of sea salt into the food processor and chop. Add the almonds back to the food processor (keeping them separate will keep them from getting too finely chopped as you get the basil and garlic to the right texture) with the tomatoes, cheese and olive oil and whirl briefly. Season it with freshly ground black pepper.

Cook your linguine until it is al dente and could use another minute of cooking time. Reserve one cup of pasta cooking water and drain the rest. Immediately toss the hot linguine with the pesto and mix quickly so that it drinks the sauce up a bit. Add more pasta water if needed. Serve this lukewarm, or at room temperature, with a glass of wine, after you get the baby to bed.

Another one that has been lingering in my mind is this- the recipe looks great and also references a walnut and kale pesto-