We use some of our basil pesto that we made and froze in the summertime. We froze the pesto without cheese, so that it would keep and re-heat better. We top the pasta with dried tomatoes for an easy, pick-me-up winter meal.

Alternate Preparations: Basil Pesto Pasta

We start by heating a large pot of water, covered, for our pasta. Then we place the frozen cubes into a medium bowl and set aside. We place the dried tomatoes into another bowl. We also put a small pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil to revive the tomatoes.

When the small pot of water is boiling, we pour the water over the tomatoes to cover. We set these aside for 5 minutes.

When the pasta pot is boiling, we add the pasta and some salt. We stir and cook uncovered until al dente.

Meanwhile, we remove the plumped tomatoes one at a time from the cooled off water and cut with scissors into strips. We place these on a small plate. Some of the tomatoes are not as soft as we like, so we empty the tomato water into the sink and rinse out the bowl. We place the slivered tomatoes back into the bowl and cover with some of the pasta water. We also take some pasta water, about 2 tablespoons, with our ladle and pour onto the defrosting pesto cubes. We smash the rest of the frozen bits with a fork and grate some parmesan into the pesto sauce. We make some parmesan curls with our peeler and set these aside.

We drain the al dente pasta in our colander and pour it back into our pot. We stir in the pesto sauce and serve up the individual portions. We drain the tomatoes and top the pasta with the tomatoes, parmesan curls, and some freshly ground black pepper.

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