Cashew-Pesto Pasta

The obligatory introduction to whoever is bored enough to actually read this:

Hi, my name is Maja and I don't eat to live; I live to eat. I created this blog -- which was originally intended to be a webcomic about irradiated, sentient potatoes, but we all know that sweet corn is the superior vegetable -- because I have all these recipes percolating in my head with nowhere to go. And because I have nothing better to do with my free time. :( So until my cooking gives me food poisoning or until I get a life, this blog will be the outlet for my epicurean (mis)adventures and boredom. Oh, and prettyyy pictures! Let's not forget the pretty pictures.

Okay, on to the fun stuff.

CASHEW-PESTO PASTA

Pesto has always grossed me out. Ever since I was a kid, the idea of eating pesto has always been commesurate with the image of me bovine-ified, grazing on grass. Imagine the indignity! My ancestors didn't work their way up the food chain for me to eat leaves.

At least, that was before I read David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster and Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals. Now, I still eat meat, but it's an informed, if uneasy, choice. And, somehow, even the juiciest steak is just a bit too hard to swallow now.

Now I try to eat more vegetable-based dishes; I have never eaten tomatoes before this day, but when I saw Rachel Ray's Cashew-Pesto recipe, I couldn't resist. Pops of cherry red on a bed of white bows flecked with the green of spring? If only broccoli and spinach were this adorable!

You can find the recipe here. I modified it a bit by substituting Panama oranges (calamansi) for lemon. I also didn't have parmesan cheese at home (gasp, blasphemy) so I made do with cheap quickmelt cheese instead. But it's okay -- I made up for the poor quality by making it extra cute and cutting out heart-shaped chunks of cheese! A closer view:

The result was a medley of flavors from the subtle citrus kick, sweet roasted cashews, earthy parsley infused with fresh garlic and... okay, so I only ate one tomato.

You can't say I didn't try.