Pasta with White Beans and Kale

The holidays are an indulgent time, and when we made it back, weary from our travels, we wanted something for dinner that:

1. Had a lot of dense, green vegetable content, and
2. was only going to take, like, two minutes to make, because we were pretty tired.

Well, let's get some kale. And let's make some fettuccine with white beans and kale.

This is easy stuff: cook you up some long noodles, and, while the noodles cook, wilt up a whole mess of chopped kale.

Throw a pinch of chili flakes and a couple cloves of chopped garlic into some oil in a big pan, like a wok. I just used a wok.

After the garlic is just fragrant, heap up a mound of kale and stir a little, just so the garlic doesn't burn. Keep adding kale as your pile wilts down. When it's all dark and dense and cooked, tip in a can of cannellini beans and a splash of olive oil and toss with your pasta.

Serve it with some hard Italian cheese or a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Mint Pesto

One of my favorite parts of summer is all the fresh produce, especially fresh herbs.

Matt bought a huge bunch of mint this week.  Of course, my first reaction was Mojitos! but in an attempt to find some more, um, productive uses of mint, we were inspired by Mark Bittman to try mint pesto.

It's a pretty straightforward recipe:

2 loosely packed cups of fresh mint

Salt to taste

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons walnuts

Put it all in a food processor, and presto, you have pesto! (Sorry, I couldn't help it).

I served it over whole wheat spaghetti, but it is good over any kind of pasta, or grilled veggies.

Pesto can really be made with any fresh herb or green.  It's traditionally made with basil, but you can use mint or dill.  I've even had it with spinach and arugula.  If you have access to them, pine nuts can be swapped for the walnuts.  Most recipes include a clove of garlic.  I didn't use it here because the mint is pretty sweet, and I thought it would taste funny, but with a more savory herb, I would definitely recommend it!