Experiment Recipe #1

I am addicted to the Food Network and to any and all cooking shows on T.V. I don't know what it is about cooking shows that I love so much but to me, cooking is like art form. You start with a clean slate, sort of, and then you begin to create your masterpiece, in my case my ingredients are my paints. So, like any artist, I like to experiment with new foods and concepts. On Everyday Food, I watched a pesto being made out of peas. I just had to try it. Unfortunately, the recipe was not posted on their website--not even as of today--so I had to create the recipe by memory. I think I missed something because it didn't taste as good as I thought. First I started to boil water in a huge pot. Make sure you always salt your water. It really makes a difference in the taste of your pasta. I then seasoned chicken tenders with a store bought poultry seasoning. I cooked the chicken in a large skillet, about 5 minutes per side. Set aside and cover to keep warm. To make the pesto, I grinded about 1/3 cup blanched almonds in the food processor. I then added about 8 oz thawed peas, 1 garlic clove, salt & pepper and squeezed in about a tablespoon of lemon juice. I processed it more then started to drizzle about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of olive oil until it gets to a creamy consistance. If the pesto is too thick, add a little of the pasta water to thin it out. When the water boils, I added about a half pound of penne pasta. I cook to package almost al-dente, then I added 8 oz of frozen peas. I cooked them both together until the pasta was al-dente. I drained the pasta and peas and put it back in the same pot. I then drizzled a little bit of olive oil and added the pea-pesto to the pasta and combined it all together. I plated about 4 tenders per plate with a side of the Penne with Pea-Pesto. The pasta seemed to be missing something. The taste was OK but not great. My husband suggested I add crumbled bacon to the pasta next time. Perhaps where I went wrong is that I should have added more peas to the processor to make the pesto more creamy. The pesto did seem a little gritty. Over all, it was an OK dish, but not the greatest. Once the real recipe is available online I'll post it here.