Pasta, Peas and the Palouse

Leaving Walla Walla two years ago, I knew one thing about my future--I was heading to Guatemala for six months without knowing a word of Spanish. Knowing that the best chapter of my life to date was coming to a close left me feeling like graduating from college was the end of something amazing, and the beginning of something I wasn't ready to deal with.

As anticipated, my life took some turns for the best and some for the worst. I made mistakes, learned from them, and made some more. I traveled to India, spent two unforgettable weeks in an ashram, and somehow ended up back in Walla Walla on a complete whim.

I thought moving away from Walla Walla would be easier the second time around. After a summer of incredible food, wine, and friends, the thought of moving to Moscow, Idaho and diving into a world of studying, exams, and life decisions was incredibly daunting. Don't get me wrong, I was excited for medical school--I just had no idea what to expect from this whole WWAMI thing (I'm doing my first year of UW medical school in Pullman and Moscow before heading back to Seattle for second year).

I have made it through five weeks and I have one exam under my belt! I have never studied this hard nor enjoyed it this much. Surprisingly, forcing myself to find balance away from all the studying has given me a chance to get back into the kitchen. Do I dare mention the food blog reading habits I've developed?! Anyway, the farmer's market here is absolutely incredible and I live in house with some pretty incredible cooks and eaters.

Using this as my inspiration I whipped up this pasta the other night...

Lemon Pepper Pasta with a Pepita Pea Pesto

Ha. Not only is this dish filled with alliteration, but the roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) remind me of eating pepillan (see previous post).


Pesto:
1/2 bag of frozen petite peas
1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil
1/4 cup of roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds--I toasted them in the broiler for 3 minutes or so)
2 lemons (zest one and collect juice from both)
4-6 tbsp of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Roasted garlic (I threw 3 cloves into the oven while I was roasting the pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup of grated Asiago cheese

Baked Tofu (optional)
I tossed one package of extra firm cubed tofu with 1/2 tsp of ground thyme, olive oil to coat, salt and pepper and baked it at 400 F for 15 minutes or so until the tofu was crispy on the outside.

1 package of Lemon Pepper Pasta (Trader Joe's) cooked al dente

First, boil water and dump the peas into the boiling water for 3-5 minutes until they begin to float. Drain the water (use it for the pasta). Add the peas and the rest of the pesto ingredients into a food processor and mix.

Serve over pasta with baked tofu. Garnish with roasted pepitas and grated asiago.

You can easily replace pepitas with walnuts or pinenuts depending on your personal preferences.




I spent my first weekend afternoon here in the Palouse picking blackberries and cliff jumping. We made these blackberry ricotta scones inspired by this link.
I exchanged blackberries for raspberries. I also added 1 tbsp of lemon zest.

And one more thing:
The Head and the Heart is an incredible band.
So is this song