pesto pasta

If you need a side dish on a weeknight, you want something easy, right? Well, that's what I thought when I found this recipe for Basil-Infused Pasta. I halved the recipe to make it side-sized: half the spaghetti, half the pesto. What I forgot to halve was the reserved pasta water. I realized this halfway through the (second) cooking time, when I looked in the pot and thought, "There's no way all this water's going to get absorbed in fifteen min...ohhhh." So I dumped half the water, and of course, there went half my basil flavor. The rest was edible, not terrible, but obviously lacking. I blame my just waking up from a nap and trying to get my head on straight.

I did, however, make a tasty pesto mayo with some of the extra pesto. Just a tablespoon of pesto in 1/2 cup of mayo was all the basil-y goodness I needed.