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It’s about damn time! Peaches have arrived in our grocery stores, ya’ll! It’s so funny when we crave the foods that aren’t in season because we know we can’t have them. I’ve been waiting for MONTHS to get my hands on the hairy little f*$kers! Now, I can finally share this recipe for Pesto Farfalle with Peaches and Herbs, along with a short story about inspirations! The sweetness of the peaches combined with the saltiness of the pesto is divine! With the added crunch of the sugar snap peas and fresh sweet corn, I know you’re going to love it! But first, I have a little story to share.
Peaches and Herbs
Speaking of Inspirations + Pesto Farfalle with Peaches and Herbs, do you remember the band, Peaches, and Herb? I used to listen to Shake Your Groove Thing on repeat as a child. My sister and I believed disco was the best thing ever. Until the day I ventured into my oldest brother’s bedroom while he was at work. The plethora of his stacked albums summoned me to sneak in a few listens before he came home. That day changed my life forever.
Rod’s musical taste ranged from The B-52’s, Buzzcocks, David Bowie, and The Cars to Kiss, Rush, and The Police. I had no idea who these bands were or why my brother loved them so much. I had to investigate. That first touch of the needle to the record gave out such powerful music. It seared into my veins to forever be a part of me. I surprisingly stumbled into a world much more significant than the disco planet I previously resided on.
From disco to post-punk to the birth of a creator
From that day forward, music became an influential part of my everyday life. Anytime I turned it on, I felt a strong urge to be alone. This passionate feeling growing inside of me felt so foreign, and I couldn’t understand why. I just knew I needed to self-isolate and do something meaningful. My bedroom became a place for me to retreat, listen to music, draw, color, and design. I even daydreamt of being a rockstar or a comic book illustrator when I grew up. My plans to become an artist were so grandiose; I stopped paying attention to my math and science classes. The only subject I cared about was my 5th-grade art class because that was the place where I felt it was okay to be Ruthie.
Inspirations from the classroom to the kitchen
Mrs. Skiles, my fifth-grade art teacher, was a god in my book. Her creative spirit was so intense, and I eagerly soaked it in. The woman had a hippy quality that screamed Joni Mitchell but with short hair. She wore colorful tops and huge rose-tinted glasses that gave subtlety to her green eye shadow. The way she would glide into the class was poetry in motion. I immediately became a fan just from the energy I felt coming out of her and into my soul. A few other aspects of home life were little to be desired; Mrs. Skiles’s art class was the only thing I looked forward to Monday through Friday. I wanted nothing more than to be an artist.
“All children are artists, the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up”- Pablo Picasso
One day, she assigned each of us to color a beautiful bouquet. When some of my classmates began to laugh at my floral drawings, she intervened. I covered, with my hands, what I colored, and she slowly removed them from my picture. “Don’t cover them up. These flowers are yours, and they are as they are to be. They are beautiful”. This lady not only got me, but she also had my back. A sense of calm came over me, knowing this particular adult was so interested in my well being. It was like she knew someday I was going to be an artist too, and she was taking care of one of her own. Mrs. Skiles was indeed one of my favorite teachers throughout my school years. She was the way all adults should be with a child; she handled with care.
Yes, the kitchen
A funny thing happened along the way from that art class. I went through the motions of life as each year passed, always making time to create. I went from flailing a paintbrush to slinging a cooking spatula: same art, different medium. By age 30, I was on a path I never thought I’d walk. I learned how to cook, you guys!
Inspirations to artistry
Before art school and learning the ways of cooking, I created art in private, with no intention of sharing it with the world. That same fear of hearing laughter at my art came back to haunt me. I’m not quite sure when I began not to care what people thought. I’m not entirely sure that I DON’T care. It took me years to be okay with saying, ”I am an artist” because I feared sounding like an egotistical creep. The truth is, your artistic expressions are unique to you, and you should share them! As long as what you create makes you happy, there is no reason to hide it from the world. So here I am, sharing my art and love of cooking in hopes of inspiring someone else to see a plate as their canvas. A great place to start is tapping into your inspirations and this recipe for Pesto Farfalle with Peaches and Herbs! Pesto, pasta, peaches, and herbs make for a beautiful palette for your palate!
For more tasty pasta, peach, or pesto dishes, try Garlic Pasta Nests with Spinach and Shrooms or Spring Peach Pesto Panini.
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Pesto Farfalle With Peaches and Herbs
This recipe makes A LOT! It’s a great dish to take to a weekend cookout or prepare a batch for workweek lunches. Get inspired and get in the kitchen!
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Ingredients
For Arugula Basil Pesto
1– 4 oz package of fresh basil
1 cup fresh arugula
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup almond slivers
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tbsp water
For the pasta
1– 12 oz box of farfalle pasta, egg-free
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2 ears of corn, kernels removed
4 oz. sugar snap peas, julienned (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
juice of two small oranges
1–15 oz can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 peaches, pits removed, sliced into thin wedges
alfalfa sprouts for garnish
balsamic glaze for drizzle
Instructions
Cook the pasta to package instructions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
Add all of the ingredients for the pesto into a food processor. Blend until pesto forms. Set aside.
Combine red onion, corn, sugar snap peas, and dill into a large mixing bowl. Add the pasta to the bowl and mix all of the ingredients together.
Scrape the pesto from the processor bowl into the mixing bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until all of the pasta is coated with the pesto. Add the vinegar, orange juice, and beans to the bowl and stir everything together.
Carefully toss peaches with the pasta. Plate and garnish with sprouts and balsamic glaze.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: salads, main,
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
