Sometimes We Want Something Super Simple

We did not get a chance to cook again until Wednesday because we had some leftovers and I am taking ballet twice a week at The Joffrey School of Ballet!  (Do not worry, I am still terrible, but it is a lot of fun!  We practiced walking across the floor gracefully and....well, let's just say it will take some more work!)

Back to Wednesday's dinner.  We had planned on going to the gym after work, but it was so beautiful out that we could not pass up a chance to go running in 60 degree weather!!!!  We both wore short sleeves and pants that were not full-length!  It was another super long run of a whole two miles, but at least I am finally getting back out there after a week out of the gym due to that oh so lovely stomach virus.

We ran along the Hudson River in Riverside Park again:

Nope, the snow isn't completely gone yet!

After our run we wanted something quick and healthy, so we ever-so-slightly adapted a recipe we had seen on The Chew by Clinton Kelly.  It is a pea-sto (that is not a typo).  You take frozen peas, thaw them, then use them as the base for a pesto-like creation.  Jeffy was really excited about this one, but I had my doubts.

To make the pea-sto you take your thawed frozen peas and either toss them in a food processor or a blender.  Again, our kitchen is tiny, so when we were deciding what to have in our New York kitchen we had to think about which appliances and utensils had the most uses.  We own a food processor (THANK YOU KERRY AND ANGELO) we got from our wedding, but it is waiting for our move to the suburbs, so we use a blender for a lot of things even when a food processor would be easier.  We have a Ninja (THANK YOU LIBBY) that we love, so we used it as usual.

Alright, sorry for the rambling.  Back to the actual cooking process.  Into the Ninja go the peas (we used a whole 16 ounce package even though the recipe says 10 ounces - as non-beginner cooks and generally smart people we like to do the simple math and manipulate recipes to the amount we have on hand), four garlic cloves (we did not bother chopping them, just a quick rough slice because it is going in the blender anyway!), lemon zest, the juice of the whole lemon, and our special ingredient of the week - ginger!  I grated about 1/3" fresh ginger into the blender.  We added salt and pepper (again, salt brings out the flavor in whatever you are making, so use it not so sparingly anymore!), and drizzled in a few tablespoons of olive oil.  We blended it and continued to drizzle in the olive oil until the pea-sto comes together into a nice pesto-like consistency.

We made store-bought gnocchi from Trader Joe's (two to three minutes cooking time!) while the pea-sto was blending, so the entire meal took a total of less than ten minutes!  We mixed the pea-sto with the gnocchi and topped it with crushed red pepper and it looked like this:

It is not my neatest "plating" job, but I really just wanted to eat it, so let's just call it "rustic" because that is what people claim things are when they actually look a little messy!

Using the 16 ounce package of peas means we have lots leftover to use for an appetizer on crostini or for another easy pasta night!

The recipe (remember, we followed it all except we added some fresh grated ginger and we do not have any Parmigiano-Reggiano this week) is here:

Clinton Kelly's Pea-Sto - The Chew


Hope you enjoy using the recipe as-is or adapting it with your own flair like we did!