The Hurricane is the only toddler in preschool who wanders around in her own little cloud of garlic funk, but whatevs. It’s a fine way to use up that gorgeous parsley (the fresher the better) before the first freeze does it in — and really, there’s nothing like “crack, crack[ing]” eggs into homemade linguine with Appa. (Plus, it makes enough leftovers to send to school for a week.)

Pesto Pasta
Very slightly adapted from Serious Eats

1 pound pasta (we used linguine)
2 cloves of garlic
6 oz (appx. 2 bunches) of fresh and fragrant flat leaf parsley
2/3 cup chopped pistacios and/or almonds
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
2/3 cup olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, and reserve a cup of pasta water.
2. Place the garlic in a mortar with a pinch of salt. Use the pestle to smoosh it into a creamy paste.
3. Place the garlic paste, parsley, nuts, Parmesan, olive oil, salt, and pepper into a vessel and use an immersion blender (or food processor, if you have one) to whiz until it forms a thick paste. (If your mortar and pestle is big enough, that would work well enough, too.)
4. Toss the pasta with the pesto, and add reserved pasta water as needed. Serve right away.