6 ounces canned chunk tuna, drained
6 ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/4 cup pesto
1/4 small red onion, chopped
1/4 cup parmesan, grated

1. Combine tuna, artichoke, pesto and red onion. Chill in the refrigerator.
2. Top with parmesan cheese before serving.

Makes 4 servings

2 cups peas
1/4 cup scallions, chopped
1/4 teaspoon mint
salt
water

1. Bring salted water to a boil and cook peas until just tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Drain peas and stir in scallions and mint. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

1 cup orzo pasta
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 portobello mushrooms, sliced into 1/4" cubes
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper
water

1. Bring salted water to a boil and add the orzo, cooking until just tender.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter with olive oil over medium heat in a large sauce pan. Add the portbello and brown on all sides.
3. Drain the orzo and stir in the portobello, parsley and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 4 servings

I received a request to do something with pesto that wasn't pasta. I looked back through the archives and realized that both times I've used pesto was with pasta. Also, I've only used it twice, which sort of baffles me since I love it so much. I went rummaging through the cupboards and freezers to come up with something and threw together a Pesto Tuna Salad. It's flavor is somewhat similar to Tapanade, especially because of the marinated artichoke hearts. I liked it.

I saw a picture of an orzo salad a couple of days ago and was baffled. I wanted to know where I could get such gigantic grains of rice! Of course, I quickly learned that orzo is not a rice at all, but just a pasta that resembles it. I wasn't really thinking about it when I cooked it, but since it's just tiny bits of pasta instead of whole noodles, it cooked up a bit faster than I expected. I would expect it to be better al dente to give it a firmer texture. The Portobello Orzo was alright, but I didn't really like the lemon addition and think I should've used my lone portobello for a more desirable purpose.

Minted Green Peas seemed like a perfect addition to the flavors I had decided upon. I've never actually made minted peas before and I thought that the smell was vile. I'm not sure what it was about it, but for some reason the scent of mint was a really turn off. Perhaps it's a side effect of the whole week of Greek this month. I did not add very much mint at all, so the flavor did not come through nearly as much as the smell. All in all they tasted pretty much like peas.