Pesto so good you won't wait for the pasta

Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto accenting smoked wild salmon, reduced-fat Swiss cheese and Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, all from Costco Wholesale. Roll it up and enjoy.

The refrigerated pesto makes an early appearance with two organic brown eggs and leftover organic quinoa, a whole grain from Bolivia that has fewer carbs than pasta or rice, and is a great source of protein. All the ingredients except the coarsely ground Aleppo red pepper on the eggs are from Costco Wholesale.

A couple of spoonfuls of pesto melting on an open-face omelet of egg whites and reduced-fat Swiss cheese. All but the sun-dried tomato and Aleppo pepper are from Costco Wholesale.

I almost forgot to use the pesto to dress organic whole-wheat spaghetti from Trader Joe's.

Editor's note: In 2018, five years after I wrote this, Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto remains among my favorite items from Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The refrigerated Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto that showed up at my Costco Wholesale in Hackensack a couple of months ago was an early sign of spring.

The bright color and flavor of the imported Italian basil and sheep's milk cheese that goes into it are perfect for lots of dishes besides pasta.

This pesto is good right out of the fridge with fish, smoked wild salmon and eggs, and it makes a great sandwich spread.

Since I'm on a no-bread, no-pizza diet, I deconstruct the sandwich and roll up the pesto-accented ingredients. 

A classic: organic whole-wheat spaghetti with pesto.

I used the last few ounces on Sunday night with a half-pound of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti, which I drained and returned to the pot for dressing.

The pesto-kissed, al dente pasta filled my mouth with flavor, and there was plenty left over for breakfast this morning, along with a small wedge of fresh-tomato frittata.

Pesto sauce shouldn't be heated up before you use it to dress pasta, one reason it isn't as good when you plate and reheat leftovers in the microwave, so you should set a limit of about 2 minutes.