Rotini with pesto, potato and green beans

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

Last night, I had to make supper fairly quickly, so I put on a pot to boil, peeled and diced a Yukon gold potato, and got out a box of rotini. When the heavily salted water came to boil, I put in the rotini and the potato. When the rotini/potato had about four minutes left to go, I threw in some frozen cut-up green beans -- so they all finished cooking at the same time.

I dumped it all in a colander, then into a large bowl. I added a couple of tablespoons of pesto, then grated a goodly amount of pecorino romano over the whole thing. It served four quite nicely, and the whole thing took about 20 minutes.

[GoCubsGo]

1. That's almost one of my favorite dishes.

I usually trade the pasta or taters for some cooked, chopped pancetta and/or some chopped, toasted walnuts (or fried up w/ the pancetta). It's even better if you use fresh green beans.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. If I'd had fresh green beans, I would have used them.

I seriously considered throwing in some pine nuts.

I made it vegetarian, since my son's girlfriend, who is vegetarian, was with us.

[GoCubsGo]

3. Pine nuts would have been better, instead of the walnuts.

I usually substitute the walnuts, because they're way cheaper than pine nuts. I mistakenly bought chopped hazelnuts once, and wound up using them. Not bad. Pistachios would work, as well, I would think.