2nd Time's the Charm

Not every recipe works for me the first time.  Don't even ask about all the cake, muffin, and cookie recipes that I've had go wrong.  I want to become a better cook but for now I'm sticking with the easy stuff.

This recipe for shells with peas, pesto, and sun-dried tomatoes seemed like just my thing.  Quick, easy, pasta.  Still, the first time around, I managed to mess up before I even started cooking- while I was at the grocery store in fact.  The only sun-dried tomatoes my grocery store had were organic and much more expensive than the regular canned, diced tomatoes.  So I decided that the cheaper tomatoes would be a safe substitution.  I didn't think they'd be as delicious, but it seemed worth a try.  For some reason, I chose diced tomatoes with lime and cilantro.  Just for the record, lime, cilantro, and pesto do not really go together.  The results certainly weren't horrible but I had a strong feeling that I could do better.

So, I gathered my ingredients again.  I broke down and bought some (less expensive) sun-dried tomatoes.  I think I probably could have left out the tomatoes entirely but I wanted to try the recipe in its true form.  This time, I was more than pleased with the results.

Just a couple things:

-- My sun-dried tomatoes were "Julienne sliced."  That was fine but I think diced would have been better.

-- I halved the recipe and that does seem to yield three modest servings.

-- I used pre-made pesto from a jar because I didn't want to have too many things going at once.

Yes, this recipe is one to remember.  I love that I can keep all the ingredients in my fridge and freezer and just throw it together in minutes.