Spaghetti with traditional pesto and baby tomatoes

The warm bread and the pesto served by Bone fish Grill restaurant chain changed my life. Should I say this or my addiction to the recent Korean drama PASTA which casts "Lee Sun Gyun" and "Gong Hyo Jin" as the leads with an Italian restaurant in the background changed my life? I am unable to decide between the two but all I am sure about is my life is changed. I am so addicted to pasta now. Pasta by using fresh ingredients, traditional methods. I want to try different types of pasta with different sauces. Until now I have eaten Spaghetti  Rotini, Penne, Ravioli, Fusilli, Conchiglle, Pappardelle. But I have cooked all of these without knowing which one goes well with what sauce. My husband likes every pasta with a tomato sauce. I am bored of tomato sauce. I love pasta with BROCCOLI in it. Any pasta, any sauce but add broccoli! Hows that now. Boring? I don't think so ;)

So, I decided I shall start from scratch. The popular 2010 K drama gave me insights to learn the tricks of making pasta. And over the years of trial and error I learnt some from authentic Chef's videos posted in You tube. Nevertheless, I was cooking bad pasta!

The pesto that I made was out of fresh ingredients. No frozen food at all. I went well with Spaghetti and also some toasted bread.

Requirements:
1. Fresh basil - 1 handful ; blanched in boiling water for 2 minutes and run under cold water
2. Pine nuts - dry roasted - 1/2 handful
3. Lemon - 1/2
4. Garlic - 1 clove
5. Olive oil - 2-3 Tablespoon
6. Parmesan cheese grated - 3 tablespoon (I opted out of it at this point; You can use it on pasta later)

7.Spaghetti - pasta
8. Red pepper flakes
9. Baby tomatoes - 10
10. Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the clove of garlic and roast it just until its raw flavor is out but make sure not to burn it.
Add all the ingredients to your food processor, give it a pulse or two. Then grind it into a paste. Do not worry if you have some pine nut chunks. They will be great to bite on while eating pasta.

This pesto served fresh with warm bread is food from heaven. You can't beat that.

But use this pesto as a sauce for Spaghetti. That's even better. Boil pasta in salted water to al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water and drain the pasta. Do not run it under cold water. Heat olive oil, add some halved baby tomatoes, roast them for a minute then add pesto. The aroma arising out of this now is heavenly! Add you pasta water and red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to season. Just as the pesto boils, dump the spaghetti. Turn the spaghetti to coat well all over, add grated Parmesan cheese. Give it a slight toss. All set to gobble them up?

Ah, I wish i could eat pasta all day long and every meal!