Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto with Feta Cheese

Good morning all! I have some exciting news! I have been accepted as a Foodbuzz featured publisher! This is very exciting for me because I constantly read other food blogs through Foodbuzz's emails and their top 9 on the site...and to possibly be included in those posts is awesome for me :) Woohoo! Annnd in a completely unrelated announcement, I won free shoes yesterday! It was DSW Free Shuesday and I was one of the first 20 to e-mail the correct answer. I was ecstatic. I still am a little bit, since I'm telling everyone I speak to. :)

Now onto what you really come here for...the food! :)

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto with Feta Cheese
from Cooking Light
Serves 3-4

• 8 oz whole wheat linguine pasta
• 3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed (drained if oil-packed, re-hydrated if not)
• 1/4 cup basil leaves, packed
• 2 Tb. slivered, blanched almonds (about 1 oz)
• 2 Tb. Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tb. garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 oz feta cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt. Drain cooked pasta and reserve 1 cup pasta water.

I did not have blanched, slivered almonds. And I wasn't going to buy them when I had plain almonds in the cupboard. So I blanched them myself. Cover almonds in a small bowl with boiling water. Let sit for 3 minutes. Remove almonds and rub the skin off. Sounds easy, right? Well, it was a little more difficult than just rubbing the skin off but it was easy to get a hang of it after the third or fourth almond. Chop in the food processor before adding ingredients so they are not whole.

My tomatoes were not packed in oil. So I re-hydrated them according to their package directions and added a tsp of olive oil for flavor. 

While pasta cooks, place tomatoes and next 6 ingredients (through black pepper) in a food processor; process until finely chopped.

We've discovered this before. I'm not good at reading through directions unless it's baking. So I just did my own thing here. And their way would have been much easier. So look at the pictures because they're pretty but follow the written directions :)

Combine tomato mixture and the reserved 1 cup cooking liquid, stirring with a whisk. Add to pasta; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with feta.

Nutritional Information (for 1/3): 406 calories, 8.6 g fat (1.7 g sat), 6.2 g fiber, 18.5 g protein

Nutritional Information (for 1/4): 305 calories, 6.5 g fat (1.3 g sat), 4.7 g fiber, 13.9 g protein

I put 3-4 servings because it depends on how much pasta you want or whether or not you have something else to serve with it. I only had a small salad on the side so I split it into thirds. My favorite thing about this dish? Easy gourmet. Especially if you have all the ingredients as specified. I think the feta really made it shine. I was nervous at first; thought it was a bit weird to top it with feta but it's not. It tastes fabulous.

I think this is a record for me. Shortest post ever. But I think it's because each post lately has had some major ending with a life-changing discovery. Not today. I have homework to do. So just enjoy this absolutely hilarious parody video that I discovered on Monday. It's definitely worth all 6 minutes. 

Until next time...♥