Saturday

Farfalle with almond tarragon pesto (recipe in the comments)
Radish and endive salad with homemade light blue dressing

Hot tea
______________________________________________________________
Ok, so if you read Ten Dinners? with any regularity you know that m and I have a "thing" for pesto. We have three pesto recipes we love and make regularly (i.e. more than once a year):

The best basil pesto out there
Spinach and arugula pesto
Green pea pesto

We eat our regular basil pesto almost once a week during the summer to keep the basil crop under control. This is atypical eating for us, so we must love it. I think it also speaks volumes that I cut out/save/notice any new pesto I come across. This one was special because we both LOVE tarragon and grow it each summer, but have VERY few recipes that use it. We end up mincing it onto veggies, but that's about it. When I found a recipe that uses 1 1/2 cups of the herb that as also a pesto, I was sold. We tried it early in the season, now that Wegman's is selling locally grown hot house herbs just to see if we have a new summer favorite. And we do - though the light flavors here seem especially perfect for early spring. We may have to make use of the hot house tarragon each year!

Prep Notes
Difficulty: Super easy
Chopping: Endive, radishes
Time: 20 minutes
Make ahead: You can make the pesto a long time in advance, remix and add to freshly cooked pasta.

Reaction
J: "We have four! Count them - FOUR - pestos!"
M: "The perfect spring pesto!"

Friday

Penne with broccoli rabe (recipe in the comments from May 7th, 2008)
Sauteed grape tomatoes

Hot tea
______________________________________________________________
This is our first dinner just us post-vacation and I expect you can detect a bit of recovery here. This is a very simple, light dinner. After eating extremely well for the past week, we're working to be closer to our eating norms :) Also, it's a Friday in Lent and this seems like a good dinner. This is one of those recipes we've made for so long that we don't even look at the recipe any more and so I forgot that we've started liking it better with whole wheat pasta. Oh well, next time. The overall effect is very homey and welcoming for us and the spark of the grape tomatoes is PERFECT!

Prep Notes
Difficulty: Super easy
Chopping: Broccoli rabe, garlic
Time: 25 minutes
Make ahead: I would do this all just before serving.

Reaction
J: "An oldie but goodie."
M: "Simple, clean flavors."