Chilled Mint and Pea Soup with Baby Scallops

Another day, another chilled soup? In case you didn’t get the chance to read it, my last post was about a chilled tomato-yogurt soup I love to make when the weather warms up.
This time around, I want to share another one of my summer favorites with you: my chilled minted-pea soup!

Homemade Peasto Linguine

It’s peasto time! In case the title wasn’t explicit enough, this is a recipe for a homemade pesto made with sweet peas. I’d been thinking about it and lurking at my huge bag of frozen peas for a little while before I actually decided to give it a shot. Since I had a little extra time this week end, I finally got to try my hands at it and tweak a recipe to make it just the way I like it. Let me tell you up front that I’m now obsessed with it. So obsessed actually, that I tend to just eat most of it out of the bowl while the pasta cooks. I just spread it on toasted bread instead. And oh how good it tastes… Once the pasta is done though, I still toss it with what’s left of the sauce. It’s absolutely delicious once topped with fresh grated parmesan! This peasto is a little sweeter than your typical basil pesto and definitely makes for a refreshing change! Bon appétit!

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Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 80g linguine pasta
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/3 small garlic clove (minced or crushed)
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• a spoonful of sliced almonds
• 1/4-1/3 cup pasta water
• salt, pepper

Directions:

1. Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot, and cook the pasta for the time written on the packaging (mine takes about 10 minutes).
2. Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe bowl, cover the frozen peas with water and cook for about 1:30 minutes. Drain, reserve about a spoonful, and place the rest in a food processor.
3. To make the “peasto”, add the garlic, the almonds, the olive oil, the parmesan and some cooking water from the pasta to the food processor. Mix until the sauce is smooth and homogenous. If it’s too thick, add some more pasta water until you reach a better texture.
4. Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot, toss with the peasto, adjust the seasoning, and top with extra parmesan cheese and the spoonful of reserved cooked peas.

TIP: you can substitute the almonds for pine nuts if you have some on hand. Additionally you can add a bunch of fresh herbs while mixing the pesto. Basil or mint are my favorites for this dish!