Melt, snow, melt!

I am finally (finally!) back at work after a full week of being snowed in. I was starting to think I wouldn't see the inside of my office again until spring. And weirdly, I am happy to be here. Not that I mind having days off, mind you, but if I'm gonna have free time, I'd much rather be able to go out and DO things. Books, TV, and the internet can only keep me occupied for so long before I go stir-crazy.

Anyway, recipe for today: Chicken Fettuccine Rigatoni with Pesto Cream Sauce. I'm Italian, which means I currently have five different types of pasta in my kitchen, but none of them is fettuccine, so I just used whatever I had. It's all the same stuff, really, just in different shapes. I did not make my own pesto (what do I look like, Martha Stewart?), but my supermarket has freshly made pesto in their fresh foods section, and it worked just fine (and tasted good, too). I also added some toasted pine nuts to the dish - just spread the pine nuts out on a baking sheet and pop them in a 350-degree oven until they turn golden brown. Incidentally, my cookbook said to toast them for 6-8 minutes, so I set the timer and let them go - and they were completely burned in about 5 minutes. Maybe it's because I was using a toaster oven instead of the full oven? I don't know, but the second batch I watched more carefully and took them out when they were the right color, which was maybe 3 minutes or so. Anyway, the pesto cream sauce was delish, and it doesn't use a lot of cream, so it wasn't terribly rich or heavy.

I heated up the leftover pasta the next night, but instead of the usual garlic bread, I made some Pesto-Mozzarella Crostini to go with it. (I was inspired by the crostini on the episode of "Worst Cooks in America" that I'd watched the night before.) I sliced up a French baguette and, since I don't have a grill pan, toasted it about halfway in the toaster oven. Then I spread the leftover pesto on the toast and topped with a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese, and put it back in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted.