Heartwings says, “Green is the color of springtime, so eating green is in season.”

The recipe sat on my desk, appearing and disappearing as the days and then the weeks passed. Every once and so often I would catch sight of the small newspaper clipping and then forget about it.

 I might even think of making it but not have the time or energy just then, and soon it would disappear under the next pile. Periodically, I tidy the piles on my desk and lo and behold, the recipe would surface yet another time, and again be ignored.

One day the recipe reemerged at a fortuitous time. I was anticipating dinner to be made for a vegetarian friend coming at the end of the week. Here was my chance. I resolved to finally try it. Warning: you must use a food processor for this recipe.

After so many years experimenting with recipes, I am pretty sure I know what will work and what will not, otherwise I wouldn’t dare try out a new one when a guest was coming. This recipe, though unusual, looked pretty easy and fun, so I put the ingredients not already on hand on my shopping list: a bag of frozen peas, a lemon, and grated parmesan.

I used to freshly grate the Parmesan cheese myself, but when I saw it was twelve dollars a pound in the market, I opted for a less expensive container of the already grated cheese.  Actually, I was glad to be using the already grated cheese because I can’t grate anything easily any more. Parkinson’s has diminished my hand strength as well as my dexterity.

When the day to make it came, I assembled the ingredients and began to prepare the recipe. For your convenience, here is the full list: 1 Lb or less, depending on diners of pasta (bow tie, corkscrew, or similar) 3 Tbs lemon juice, 1 Tbs lemon zest, 1 clove chopped garlic, 2 cups frozen peas, 1 cup grated Parmesan-divided in half, ½ cup olive oil.

I put the water for the pasta on to boil and measured out the rest of the ingredients. I put the peas, the garlic, ½ cup Parmesan, and the lemon juice and zest in the food processor. The frozen peas rattled at first, then resolved into a paste with the other ingredients.  Meanwhile, the water boiled and I added the pasta with some salt.

Once the pasta was done and rinsed, I put it back into the pot, turned it on very low and added the ½ cup of olive oil and rest of the Parmesan, stirring it all up well. I turned the pesto into the pasta and stirred until it was thoroughly incorporated.

We enjoyed it, as did our guest. However, when I make it again, I plan to dilute the pesto with more olive oil, as it was rather too stiff, and perhaps make the pasta after I make the pesto, not during or before, as the original recipe had recommended. It would serve four well.