Guilty! I totally made that up!

Last night we'd planned to grill. Our first of the season since Garrett is home for spring break.

It rained.

So, grill plans were dashed and I flew by the seat of my pants... here is what we had! I have to admit, it looked great and was gobbled up by both my boys.

Garrett was pretty impressed and asked for the recipe. Crap! I had to type out what I did...

That made up dinner on Friday night when we couldn’t grill.

What I had in the house:
Linguini noodles – roasted garlic flavor from Trader Joe’s
Onion
½ jar marinara sauce
Garlic cloves
Pine nuts
Olive oil
Butter
Garlic powder (don’t use garlic salt as a sub)
Parmesan cheese
Frozen cooked shrimp – thawed and warmed (about 2 minutes in the microwave – don’t overdo this or you will have shrimp flavored rubber)
White wine
Black olives
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper

What I had to buy:
Bagged salad – Caesar lite
Mozzarella cheese - shredded
Fresh basil
Green pepper
Mushrooms (I was kind and didn’t use these on your portion)
Fresh baby tomatoes (again, my kindness showed)
1 loaf Italian bread (have the bakery slice it if it isn’t)

A nice glass of wine is splendid whilst cooking, but not necessary.

Directions:
1. Dice the onion and green pepper and stir fry in 2 tbs butter and about ½ cup white wine until edges are browned a little. Veggies should be cooked through.
2. Do the same with mushrooms in separate pan (mushrooms are mostly water so they will turn other veggies soupy if not cooked on their own.)
3. When these are done cooking, set aside in pans to cool.
4. Chop black olives into small pieces.

Directions for the bread - note - if you don't top this bread it's great as is for a side to any pasta dish:
1. Slice bread into ½ slices (or so, no need to be so picky on this, jeez!)
2. Spread with room temp butter and sprinkle with garlic powder – do this on both sides of the bread and bake at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes on each side – or until you see it getting toasty. Feel free to touch it to see if it’s toasty enough. When done, remove from oven but leave on the pan and leave oven on.

Directions for the pesto:
1. While bread is baking make the pesto – yes, I am the queen of multitasking!
a. in a food grinder combine: 1 package of fresh basil from the market or about 20 leaves if purchased on its own, 4 cloves peeled garlic or 2 tbs minced garlic from a jar, ¼ - ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese, about 5 tbs pine nuts (can sub walnuts or pecans if pine nuts cannot be found), olive oil and about 2 tsp sea salt. Grind the crap out of this! Remember the consistency I showed you – add olive oil as necessary to get the desired consistency. This can be kept in a sealed glass jar in the fridge or a few months. It’s strong so don’t keep it in a plastic container or the container will take on the odor of the pesto.

2. Spread the pesto on the bread along with a few small spoons of the marinara sauce, and top with toppings: green pepper & onion mixture, mushrooms, black olives, tomatoes then add fresh mozzarella cheese – return to oven to bake until the cheese is melted and brownish – about 10 minutes or so.

Cook pasta until done to your liking and drain – don’t rinse. (this can be done while making the pesto)

Mix salad and place in bowls.

Plate your meal:
b. Place pasta on the plate and top with remaining cooked veggies, a bit of the marinara sauce and shrimp and grind a bit of fresh pepper on top
c. Add bread and serve
d. Receive accolades humbly but proudly!