First of all, I’ve chosen a winner in the No Pudge Brownie Mix give-a-way, or rather, random.org has picked a winner, and it is……drumroll……MELISSA! Hazzah! I’ve already bought your prize, so just shoot me an email with your address, and I’ll send you a package of deliciousness. 

Now, onto the task at hand: Inspired by both The Pioneer Woman Cooks and We are Not Martha, I decided to document my dinner preparation now that I’m in a kitchen that has working lights and isn’t infested with gnats. I decided to make my parents Swordfish with Pasta and Citrus Pesto, courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis, aka my Food Network Idol. Here goes: 

The ingredients, all found in my homeland, Trader Joe’s, include swordfish steaks, one lemon (or two small ones), one orange, basil, toasted pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, spaghetti, fresh parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

First, start with the pesto. Of course, no pesto is complete (or is even pesto really…) without lots and lots of delicious basil. You’ll need to de-stem about three cups. Fun fact: your hands will smell like basil for the rest of the night. Gift or curse? 

Next, attempt to stuff all that green deliciousness into a food processor. 

Next, dump in half a cup of toasted pine nuts. You can toast these yourself, or you can just be mildly lazy and buy toasted pine nuts at the store. I, not surprisingly, went with the latter option. 

Next, take out the frustrations on your day on an innocent clove of garlic by thwapping it under your knife to get it out of it’s paper/shell situation and then drop that sucker into the food processor, too. 

Now is when you put the Citrus into “Citrus Pesto.” You want to zest a lemon into the food processor, preferably not with this tool I am holding, as it, soon after this photo was taken, resulted in a major cooking Fail, as all the zest ended up inside this little contraption, where I could not get it out. Luckily, I had extra lemons that I ended up grating with a cheese grater. I will soon be asking my mom for one of these so avoid future fails. 

Now, you aren’t quite done with the lemon yet. Cut that sucker open and juice it into the food processor too. We aren’t messing around here with the citrus flavor. In fact, go ahead and do the exact same zest/juice routine with the orange.

Now the fun part: blend this beautiful mixture until everything is finely chopped. Once you think everything looks sufficiently blended, slowly add in half a cup of olive oil until the mixture is smooth and mouthwatering..er…creamy. (This step, sadly, proved too difficult to photograph.)

You may have to scrape the sides at some point to make sure everything is incorporated. 

Then poor the whole mixture into a bowl, admire how green and amazing it (and you) are and set it a side. 

Now is the time when I had a minor panic attack about the mess I’d made thus far, so I took a small cleaning break before starting on the next few steps. (Can we also take a moment to stop and admire my mom’s sink…god, I love this kitchen entirely too much.) I’d also like the point out that after cleaning about half of this stuff by hand, I remembered that little appliance next to me was called a dishwasher and could do this for me. Can you tell I’ve been deprived all summer? 

After the dishes were stowed in the dishwasher (aka my savior), I began boiling a large pot of water and salted it to season the spaghetti that would eventually makes it way there. 

It was at this point I remembered I had forgotten a crucial step in making the pesto ridiculously good: the fresh parmesan! I grated a cup of parmesan cheese, more successfully than the lemon zest, on the cheese grater. 

I then added it to the pesto…

And slowly folded it in. Then, I again set it aside. Time to focus on the fish!

This fish could not be easier or more delicious. I’ve been making it for myself all summer. First, you want to make sure the fish is defrosted. Then drizzle olive oil over the top, and add salt and freshly ground pepper. (I’m sure you can use not so freshly ground pepper, but I like like using the grinder a little too much.)

After I did that to both sides of the fish, I noticed the water was boiling, so I added in the pasta and gave it a nice little stir to make sure it all got into the water alright. 

Next, I put the fish on the skillet which had been heating at medium heat for a few minutes. You can also grill the fish on a grill pan or, you know, an actual grill. I, again, just really like this special built in skillet. 

Once the pasta has been cooking a few minutes, make sure you grab some pasta water to save for later. Giada says it has all the starches from the pasta and helps thin out sauces without really thinning them too much. I agree, as I have no reason not to. 

After about five or six minutes, you’ll want to check on the fish and flip them if they are golden brown and have white creeping up the sides. At this point, you want to remind yourself it would be unsafe to test a piece of fish, because as delicious as it looks, it is not yet done. 

To take your mind off the fish, drain the pasta and put it back into the pot. Then, take that ridiculously amazing pesto and dump it all in there. Add a little bit of the pasta water to help break it up and stir it into the pasta. 

It mixed pretty easily for me, but when I found some large clumps, I just attacked them with the pasta water. Then I admired the beautiful color and the cheesy, creamy decliousness before me. Set the pasta aside and tend to the fish. Once the other side is just as golden brown, take the fish off the grill. Plating time!

As you can see, I almost made some roasted asparagus, which I also documented, but which I decided to cut for editorial purposes. (There were just WAY too many pictures…) All I did was coat them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and some Emeril’s Seasoning and cook for about 15 minutes at 375 degrees. 

I think my  parents were excited to come home to this instead of frozen pizza. All of it was gone in 20 minutes. Success!