Last week I wrote about an appetizer I made with pureed peas.  I wasn’t thrilled with it, but thought it was a good base for… something else.  This week I present you with the modified version, and one of my mottos for green produce of all kinds: when all else fails, make pesto.

I smashed, peeled, and blitzed three cloves of garlic in my food processor along with a handful each of basil and parsley.  Straight from the fridge, I scraped the leftover pea puree, now a humble new beginning, back into the food processor.  In went a few tablespoons of lime juice, a few heaping tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, and a judicious helping of freshly ground black pepper.

Whirl.

Taste.

It was tangy and herby, but still had the sweetness of peas and the cutting, intriguing coolness of spearmint from the original concoction.  I liked it.  If I hadn’t been feeling lazy, I might have added some toasted walnuts or even almonds.  But I was, and so alas, laziness ruled the day.

Fortunately, laziness did not keep me from slipping a log of goat cheese into the freezer, a box of curlicue pasta into a pot of violently boiling water, and a few slices of sourdough, nicely oiled, salted, and peppered, under the broiler.

It’s summer here, but the smells of this Franken-pesto as it hit the steaming hot curls of chewy-soft pasta were the kind of April and May I wish we’d had.  Warm, fresh, sharp but sweet.

We grated the chilly goat cheese over the top – when it’s almost frozen, it becomes like any other hard cheese – and as a coup de grace, added chopped snap peas to the top.  Pinched from the plant, rinsed, sliced on a bias.  Almost carelessly thrown onto the mound of snowy cheese and grassy sauce.  Another garden.

Yum.  Welcome, summer.  I embrace your call for simplicity, for freshness, for inventive dishes.  I will try to do you justice.