TUNA PESTO PASTA

My beloved and friends had an interview in Makati and I have to accompany them since they are not familiar in the area so I took a leave from work. It was their first job hunt after college. We all went to Makati from Los Banos, Laguna. I was thinking of things to do while waiting for them.

Good thing I had my laptop with me to keep me busy. With my mobile I immediately searched for the nearest Starbucks within the area. Luckily, got one just a few blocks from the building we were heading. I'll admit, I am an addict when it comes to Starbucks. That day I was there at that branch the whole day (I won't tell how much I spent. I did save money afterwards for weeks). I did ordered for couple of frappes and fruit juices. I also tried their Pesto Pasta Salad which I truly loved! I then thought of doing my own version of pesto pasta. Well I inspected the pesto salad I ate. It has twisted pasta noodles, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, roasted carrots and zucchini sticks.

A quick background, pesto is a sauce originating in Genoa, Italy. It is usually composed of crushed garlic, basil and pine nuts blended with olive oil and parmesan cheese. The term pesto came from the Italian word pesta which means to pound or to crush, which is the traditional original way of preparing it, with the use of mortar and pestle.

(To what had happened to their job hunt? They got hired. ;))

Ingredients:

For the pasta

1 kilogram twisted pasta noodles

water

generous amount of salt

For the sauce

1 cup Parsley leaves

1 Tbsp Basi leaves

1 tsp Refined salt

1/8 tsp Ground white pepper

2 cloves Crushed garlic

1/2 cup Olive oil

2 Tbsp Softened butter

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Pine nuts

For the tuna

1 can Tuna in water, drained

1/2 cup Olive oil

3 cloves Garlic, minced

1/2 cup Black Olives, pitted

1/2 cup Button mushroom, sliced

1 cup reserved water from noodles

Procedure: 
For the pasta
Cook pasta as directed in the packaging. Set aside. Reserve 1 cup of water used in cooking pasta.

For the pesto sauce
1. Prepare the raw materials to be needed such as washing and rinsing basil and parsley leaves. Grate parmesan cheese as well.  In a non-stick frying pan, roast pine nuts. No need to add oil or fat.
2. Chop pat-dried parsley leaves coarsely and transfer in a food processor. Add in roasted pine nuts and the oil gradually.
3. Add in garlic, pat-dried basil (chopped coarsely), salt and white pepper.  Continue to process until the paste-like consistency is attained. Add parmesan cheese right before using the pesto.

For the tuna
1. In a non-stick frying pan, heat olive oil and saute minced garlic until fragrant.
2. Add in drained and flaked tuna and cook for about 3 minutes.
3. Add in sliced pitted olives and button mushroom and cook for 3 minutes.
4. Place in 4 tablespoon of pesto sauce made and mix until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat.

Assembly
1. Toss in cooked noodles into the pan. Coat noodles with tuna pesto sauce.
2. Generously top with grated parmesan cheese.

Tips:
* If the the pasta is too dry, you can adjust by adding the reserved water until you achieve your desired consistency.
* You can also add olive oil for a glossy appearance of your pasta, it also helps in preventing noodles from sticking with each other.
* This complements well with garlic bread. (I will be posting the recipe for Homemade Garlic Bread)