spinach pesto pasta

I'm due to go to the grocery store (and will tomorrow as I have big plans to make dinner for the boyfriend, my first solo attempt to impress him with my culinary, non-baking skills), so my dinner plans tonight were vague. I have some random leftover items from the juicing and a couple staples in the pantry, but nothing obvious. Thinking about the amount of spinach I had made me think about making a pesto. I've made a tomato-almond pesto before and read about pea pesto, so I knew there were variations to be made on it. I looked up a basic pesto recipe in Joy of Cooking, and this was my substitution thought process:

• basil - spinach (fresh for both)
• pine nuts - pistachios
• garlic
• olive oil
• parmesan

I closed the cookbook (gasp!) and just sort of winged it. It was really good. The garlic gave it a bit of a bite, but I like that. If I had been thinking right, I would have started the pasta first, and it would have been a really quick dish to make.

*I think I only used 1/2 to 1/3 of the full yield for my 1 serving of pasta, the rest is in the fridge for tomorrow.

2 cloves garlic

8-10 shelled pistachios

1 cup fresh spinach

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup grated parmesan

salt to taste

I used my cuisinart speed stick food processor attachment to blend up 2 cloves of garlic, about 8-10 pistachios (shelled, of course), and about a cup of fresh spinach. 

I blended and stirred it until it was all the texture I wanted. I added a bit of olive oil (all told, maybe half a tablespoon), grated in some parmesan cheese (probably a half to three quarters of a cup), seasoned it with a bit of salt, and blended it a bit more. 

Then I cooked the pasta, spoon drained it into a bowl, mixed it with about half of the pesto, and then served it with a bit more parmesan on top.