Dog days of summer...

Thankfully though, the summer has been fairly mild here this year (so much for global warming...). We did have a hot spell a while back, but it has been delightful, nice enough to finally get outside to enjoy it. Now that our (just turned) 11 year old is back from hanging out with his grandparents and cousins, we can get down to enjoying the last few weeks before school starts. Of course there are baseball practices & tournaments thrown in for good measure, but that has become part of the daily life around here over the last year.
I dusted off the pots and pans for this simple summery pasta that I found on Serious Eats - Sea Shells and Creamy Basil-Tarragon Pistou with Crab and Sweet Peas. Of course, shopping for the ingredients at Trader Joes limited me to fusilli instead of shells, and no tarragon (my garden did not happen for me this year, too busy...), but they have such a good price on the canned jumbo lump crab I didn't want to make more than 1 trip.

It was so easy to put together, the pistou (or pesto if you like) was easy to whip up while the pasta cooked. The guys both said this was "a keeper" and I agree, the lemon zest gave it a nice freshness and the bit of cream stirred in made it less like standard pesto. It went perfectly with our patio, some music, and our "house white", Harmony Winery Riesling.