Basil Pesto Pasta

This was lunch for today, after Priya came up and we decided to cook (also Michael had a craving for it last week).  It's fairly easy, although you need a food processor or some kind of blender.  You have three steps of preparation-the pasta, the pesto, and the sauteed veggies to mix in.

Pasta:
Make pasta (any sort will work.  We used linguini, although I've also used shells successfully).
We made a whole box of linguini, which was about 16 oz.

Pesto:
3 cups fresh basil leaves (we were successful with 2 1/2 cups, even though its short)
6 TBSP pine nuts
3 cloves garlic (use 4 if you absolutely love garlic.  We did and it had a strong, but delicious garlic flavor)
1 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
6 tbsp of your favorite italian style salad dressing.  We used Newman's Own olive oil and vineager.  This is a more delicious way of modifying the standard pesto recipe, where you simply use olive oil.  That's why you have to replace it with an olive oil based dressing. 

Mix all of these ingredients together in the food processor and blend until its finely chopped.  It looked a little creamy.

Sauteed veggies:
In a frying pan, mix about 1 Tbsp olive oil, 2 cloves pressed or minced garlic, and veggies to saute.
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup onions, chopped

Saute these for about 3-4 minutes, until they've softened a little.  Right before you're ready to take them off, add a chopped tomato and saute for another minute (basically until it's heated).

Really, you could experiment with any vegetables, depending on your tastes, such as:
1/2 cup pitted and halved olives
1/2 cup spinach
2 peeled, sliced carrots.

After all these things are prepared, mix them together in a large bowl and serve. 

Layered Baked Pasta

Sometimes I'm really in the mood for some Italian food. However, traditionally its loaded with cheese, and sometimes meat too. So I decided to combine the stuffed mushroom filling with the layered pasta idea of lasagna to give it a nice filling.

Take the recipe from "Delicious stuffed Mushrooms" for the Mushroom filling, and tweak it a little.
http://vegantasties.blogspot.com/2010/01/delicious-stuffed-mushrooms.html


1 cup Mushrooms, chopped (something like portabello or button mushrooms, but I'm sure other kinds would work too)
1 cup red onion, chopped
2 or 3 cloves garlic, diced or crushed
1/3 cup red peppers, diced
1 cup bread crumbs (or crumbled toast works too in a pinch, as we discovered)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp oregano

Optional:
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp crushed red peppers (If you're not expecting this to be spicy, leave this one out. I thought the chili powder was good, because mine isn't terribly spicy. The crushed red peppers do add some heat though)

Before you start chopping the ingredients, start a pan of water to boil and start cooking 1 lb of pasta. There might be a little extra, but you can just put this in a tupperware with a little red sauce and have lunch for later.

Chop your ingredients, and then cook them much the same way as you would for the stuffed mushrooms.
Put the mushrooms, onions, garlic, and peppers in a skillet with the olive oil, for about 5 minutes.
Add salt, spices, and bread crumbs, then cook for another 5, stirring well.

Once both pasta and stuffing are done, take out a large baking pan (like a rectangular cake pan). Take your favorite pasta sauce (or make your own) and some spinach, and begin layering.
Layer it pasta, stuffing, sauce, spinach, pasta, stuffing, sauce, spinach, ect, until it reaches the top of the pan. The top two layers should be pasta and stuffing. Put in the oven at 375 for 40-45 minutes.