Whole Wheat Penne Pesto with Artichokes and Toasted Pine Nuts

Last night my dad hosted a family dinner to bid my sister farewell. She is on her way to Austin, TX right now to start her 4 years at AOMA for Accupuncture. We already miss her terribly, especially Sydney. I'm sure she'll be asking for "Aaaanti" tonight. :(

So in honor of Aaaanti and her own recipe, I give you...

Whole Wheat Penne Pesto with Artichokes and Toasted Pine Nuts

Here's what we used:

2 packages Whole Wheat Penne
2 packages basil pesto
1 package (~1/2 cup) raw pine nuts
1 container (~1 1/2 cups) cherry tomatoes, halved
2 medium jars artichoke hearts, quartered

Here's what we did:

Set water with salt to boil on stovetop in large stock pot. Meanwhile, toasted pine nuts in sauce pan on med-high heat for about 15 minutes (until golden brown and fragrant). Set aside pine nuts. Boiled penne until tender, drained and added back to stock pot. Heated pesto, tomatoes and artichokes until simmering, and added into stock pot with penne pasta. Stirred well to incorporate sauce and then added in pine nuts.

This was a large group, so this recipe easily served 8 people with leftovers. This would have also been really good with some shaved or shredded parmesan cheese. Yumm!!