Better Homes and Gardens Garden Veggie Linguine with Cilantro Pesto

Growing up my mother made a lot of pesto. I loved the Sunday nights when she made pesto, the house would smell wonderful and there would be enough frozen cubes of pesto to last through several meals. When I left home I stopped making pesto and didn't start making it again until after I was married. I have made a variety of different basil pesto recipes, but few pestos using other ingredients. The May issue of Better Homes and Gardens had a recipe for garden veggie linguine with cilantro pesto, which looked out of the rut of my usual basil pesto recipes.

This recipe uses a decent amount of fresh veggies. I was unable to find baby zucchini, so I followed the recipe suggestion of a small regular zucchini. This recipe goes together very quickly. Almost the entire prep time is waiting for the pasta to cook, with the veggies taking only minutes to prepare. I found the dish to take far less than the 30 minutes suggested. I followed the recipe as stated. I did use whole wheat spaghetti because it was the variety I had on hand in my pantry. My one suggestion is to make sure that the pasta water is adequately salted, especially since the vegetables are cooked in the same water.

My two sons actually picked the veggies out of this dish. They were unsure of the green pasta, but loved the veggies. My husband and I appreciated that it was a change of pace of the usual basil pesto recipes. The dish goes together very quickly and is a great way to incorporate fresh veggies.

For the recipe go to Better Homes and Gardens Garden Veggie LInguine with Cilantro Pesto .