Pesto Pasta — The Collaboration That Became Our Tradition

Year six. Done. Three hundred and twelve weeks. Six years from the dark kitchen. Six years of cornbread and children and parking lots and men who leave and businesses that begin and tattoos that mean something and a recipe box that's been copied by a ten-year-old and a fire station that's been visited by a seven-year-old and a color orange that's been claimed by a two-year-old. Six years. The number is both the whole story and a chapter break. The story continues. The story always continues. The Mitchell way.

If I could talk to the Sarah of Week 1 — and I can, she's in me, the sunflower proves it — I'd say: the dark kitchen becomes a commercial one. The side hustle becomes a business. The napkin becomes a registration. The dent in the Altima becomes a delivery vehicle. The girl who cleaned teeth becomes the woman who feeds people for money and the feeding is not a departure from the dental chair — it's the same thing. It's health. It's care. It's a woman who stands in front of people and says: let me help. Let me feed you. Let me make this better. The tools are different. The stove replaced the scaler. The cornbread replaced the fluoride. But the impulse is the same: care. Take care. Be taken care of. Let me.

The spring vegetable pasta. Again. The year-closing tradition. Penne, asparagus, peas, lemon, garlic, parmesan. Year one: Antioch, alone. Year two: Hermitage, new. Year three: Terrence on the couch. Year four: pandemic, pregnant. Year five: three kids, Chloe helped. Year six: three kids, one cat, one business, one sunflower, Chloe made the garlic bread AND the pasta sauce AND the salad, I made the pasta itself, and the meal was a collaboration between a thirty-year-old woman and her ten-year-old daughter and the collaboration is the tradition now. The tradition is no longer mine alone. The tradition is ours. The pasta is ours. The kitchen is ours. The table is ours. Sarah's Table — the business AND the actual table — is ours. Mine and Chloe's and Jayden's and Elijah's and Mama's and Earline's. Ours.

Year six. Done. Onward. Into the thirties. Into the building decade. Into Sarah's Table and the Madison kitchen and the growing and the sunflower and the children who keep getting older and the food that keeps getting better and the woman who stands at the stove and says what she's always said, what Earline said, what Lorraine says, what Chloe is beginning to say: I feed people. That's who I am. Always onward. The Mitchell way. The only way.

The pesto pasta is the tradition—it has been since Year One in Antioch, and it will be long after I stop counting the years out loud. This year Chloe owned the sauce, and what she made was bright and garlicky and completely her own, and I am not going to pretend I didn’t tear up a little while I boiled the penne. This is the recipe as close as I can get it to what we made together on the last night of Year Six—fresh basil, good olive oil, real parmesan, and the particular kind of love that comes from letting your ten-year-old run the food processor while you stay out of her way.

Pesto Pasta

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 lb penne pasta (or pasta of choice)
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup pine nuts (or walnuts)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for pasta water
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1 cup fresh or frozen asparagus tips, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup reserved pasta cooking water

Instructions

1. Boil the pasta. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Before draining, reserve 1/4 cup of the starchy cooking water. Drain and set aside.
2. Blanch the vegetables. In the last 2 minutes of the pasta cook time, add the asparagus tips directly to the pasta pot. Add the peas in the final 30 seconds. Drain everything together with the pasta.
3. Make the pesto. Add basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to a food processor. Pulse several times to combine. With the processor running, slowly stream in the olive oil until smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Combine. Add the drained pasta and vegetables back to the pot over low heat. Spoon in the pesto and toss to coat, adding the reserved pasta water a tablespoon at a time until the sauce clings evenly to every piece.
5. Serve. Transfer to a large serving bowl or individual plates. Top with extra grated Parmesan and a small drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 15g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 57g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 310mg