I saw variations on this recipe around the internet, and was rather skeptical about it, to be honest. But last year, we had a bunch of avocados that needed to be used, and it was Lent, and this was something to try. And we loved it! Even Dominic, who doesn't care for avocados, loved it. It is now a semi-regular visitor to our menu plan. I made a few changes to the recipe, aside from the obvious doubling of even this quantity, I included the nuts in the sauce, rather than only as a garnish, and I used cashews instead of walnuts, which was what I commonly saw used. That was largely because of a mistake on my part, I let myself get distracted the first night I was cooking it, and burned the walnuts, so I pulled out some cashews from the freezer, toasted those and used them. It was such a great taste, that I kept it. I've used every kind of pasta from egg noodles, to linguine, to penne, to elbow macaroni.

3 avocados, pitted
juice and zest of 2 lemons
4 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
3/4 cup of fresh herbs (I usually use some mix of parsley, cilantro, chives)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of cashews, chopped and toasted, reserving 1/4 cup for garnish
freshly ground pepper (to taste)
fresh parsley, to garnish
1 pound pasta, to serve

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and prepare the pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, process the other ingredients, except the lemon zest, 1/4 cup cashews, and the parsley for garnishing, in a food processor until very creamy.

Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/4 cup of the water, and toss the pasta with the sauce and the reserved cooking water.

Serve, garnishing with fresh parsley, lemon zest and cashews.

Labels: Homemaking, Lent, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen