Pasta with Pesto and Toasted Nuts

The most profound Italian cooking wisdom can be summarized in three words: don't overcomplicate things. A bowl of pasta with pesto should contain exactly those elements, plus whatever minor embellishments make the dish sing. In this case, the embellishment is toasted nuts—pine nuts traditionally, though walnuts work beautifully and cost considerably less—which add a textural dimension that plain pesto lacks. The technique here is almost embarrassingly simple. You cook pasta. You toast nuts in a dry pan. You combine them with pesto and a splash of the starchy pasta water that makes everything cling together properly. You finish with Parmesan and perhaps a thread of good olive oil. The whole operation takes fifteen minutes, most of which is spent waiting for water to boil. What elevates this from weeknight convenience to something genuinely satisfying is attention to the details. Toast the nuts until they're genuinely fragrant—pale and blonde won't do. Reserve pasta water religiously before draining. Let the pesto warm gently with the pasta rather than shocking it cold. These small adjustments transform the same ingredients from "quick dinner" to "dinner I'd happily serve to guests."