Signature Dish of the Day: Orechiette Pesto Pasta with Peas

Signature Dish of the Day: Happy Thursday and Happy Thanksgiving to our readers in the US! Our signature dish of the day today is this mouth-watering and absolutely delicious Orechiette Pesto Pasta with Peas 😋. The name orecchiette translates to "small ear" in Italian and alludes to the shape of the pasta. I absolutely love this tiny pasta because it's not only very easy to cook but also due to its amazing versatility - there are so many different recipes that one can make with this pasta as the star ingredient. For my recipe, I made my first-ever homemade pesto to serve as my pasta sauce. Since I don't have a food processor on hand, I decided to make pesto the traditional way...using the ever-useful mortar and pestle! See the photo below for reference. Although a food processor would definitely make things easier, I have to say I found the manual pounding process quite enjoyable 😎. For the pesto sauce, I modified the traditional pesto recipe by adding some new ingredients - I used a handful of fresh basil leaves, spinach, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, and seasoned with a dash of red wine vinegar, ground black pepper, and salt. Once my sauce was ready, I simply boiled my pasta for about 12 minutes and once it was done, I drained out the water, poured the sauce into the pasta, and tossed thoroughly to ensure each pasta piece was well-coated. Since I wanted to add some extra green color to the dish, I sautéed 1/4 cup of frozen green peas in some olive oil for about 10 minutes and then mixed them into the pasta for my finishing touch. Hearty, satisfying, and super tasty, this pasta recipe checked all the boxes for the perfect dinner meal! Serve hot on its own or with my chicken sausage & radish curry for a fulfilling dinner meal. Give it a try sometime and let us know how it goes. Enjoy! 😍