The hectic holidays are done. Time to relax, but there’s dinner to make. No problem!

GREEN BEAN-POTATO PASTA is a quick and easy recipe that can feed an army. Perfect for potlucks. Of course, you can half the recipe, if you can’t eat it all – unfortunately, this is NOT a recipe that can be frozen. (big frown from the Queen Of Freeze!)

GREEN BEAN-POTATO PASTA – makes about 15 cups

• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 cups fresh basil
• 7 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 T lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
• 1 lb white potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1/2″ pieces
• 12 oz fresh green beans, cut into 1½”-ish size for easy eating
• 1 lb gemelli pasta (or a skinny tubular pasta, such as penne)
• 2 T butter
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Toast the pine nuts and garlic cloves (unpeeled) either in a toaster oven (which is what I do), a regular oven, or a dry skillet. Whichever you choose, keep an eye on it – the pine nuts go from perfectly golden brown to black in an instant. Remove peels from garlic.

Into a food processor or blender, make a pesto by combining the pine nuts, garlic, basil, olive oil, Parmesan, salt, and lemon juice. Purée. Set aside.

Steam green beans.

Boil potato cubes in a large pot of salted water. When they can be pierced by a knife (about 5 minutes), remove to a bowl, leaving water in pot. Bring water back to a boil and cook pasta.

When pasta is done, drain over a container to save 2 cups of the pasta/potato water. Return pasta to the now-empty pot. Vigorously stir in 1¼ cups pasta/potato water, potatoes, pesto, butter, and pepper. You want to kind of break up the potatoes to thicken the sauce. Gently stir in the greens beans.