Italian Night with My Sister

Tonight was make-food-for-your-sister night. Always an interesting experience, but usually fun. My sister is a HUGE pasta fan, so of course, we made basil pesto sauce for rigatoni pasta, with garlic bread on the side. Not exactly a way to avoid the freshman 15, but delicious all the same. We started with a recipe from Betty Crocker: Cooking Basics, but we adapted it for our tastes.

For the pasta, fill a medium sized pot around two-thirds full of water. Put a pinch of salt in, and then boil the water. When the water is boiling or close to, add the pasta till it touches the top of the water. Meanwhile, make the basil pesto sauce.

Basil Pesto Sauce
1/2 cup of fresh basil (or 1-2 tsp ground basil)
*to measure fresh basil, press it into the measuring cup
1-3 cloves garlic, depending on your taste preferences
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp pine nuts or walnut pieces (optional-I didn't use them)
seasoning to taste-salt and pepper would be fine, or any general
**around 1/8 cup alfredo sauce

Mix all these ingredients in a food processor or mini-blender. Or, if you don't have either of those available to you, finely chop and basil and garlic, and then mix with the rest of the ingreidents. The ground basil will be chopped fine enough to add before mixing.
**For a creamier sauce, add pre-made alfredo sauce after mixing all of the ingredients.

After pasta is cooked fully, strain with a collander. Add sauce to pasta. Enjoy! This recipe serves one to two, depending on how hungry you are.

For garlic bread, use the following ingredients:
EITHER a french loaf or ciabatta bread
butter AND/OR olive oil
garlic salt OR garlic powder and salt
seasoning

There's a LOT of flexibility in this recipe, if you didn't notice already. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. While the oven preheats, slice the bread in about 1/2 inch slices and place on a cookie sheet. Coat with butter and/or olive oil...a little goes a long way. Sprinkle garlic and seasoning on...again, a little goes a long way. It's up to your tastes. Cook until crisp, about 7-10 minutes or so.

Enjoy Italian night!