[Flickr: foodthinkers]... More

[Flickr: foodthinkers]... More

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Last week I finally got around to whipping up some pesto with pumpkin seeds, playing the part of pine nuts, and now I am smitten. I've tossed it with cold whole wheat couscous, twice I've stirred it into pasta, and I've eaten it by the spoonful while the baby begged for her fair share. With plain sliced tomatoes, pasta with pesto becomes a simple but filling celebration of summer. More

I usually don't look to Martha Stewart for my Mexican recipes. (That's what Rick Bayless is for.) But for some reason I couldn't get past this one. I think what sold me were the pumpkin seeds. Usually flautas, sometimes called taquitos, are stuffed with ground beef and cheddar cheese. They can be good in a gut-bomb kind of way, but that's about it. On the other hand, these featured pumpkin seeds which are ground with the garlic and cilantro to create a kind of pesto. More

[Photograph: Blake Royer] Sometimes at fancy restaurants the waiter will begin the meal with a flourish, quietly intoning words to the effect of "compliments of the chef," making you feel as if you're a special guest of the restaurant. The... More

Note: Michael Natkin of the vegetarian blog Herbivoracious drops by every Wednesday to share a delicious recipe to expand our vegetarian repertoire. [Photograph: Michael Natkin] Every family has a collection of Thanksgiving side dishes that absolutely have to be there... More

These roasted tomato and pumpkin seed pesto tacos from Mark Miller's Tacos are not exactly standard Mexican fare. They are a combination of Italian, Spanish and Mexican ingredients that happen to work perfectly together. Italian Roma tomatoes, olive oil and... More