Pesto green bean and potato salad

    I was in the market for something to do with these pretty blue potatoes, although sadly they lose some of their vibrancy when cooked.

Pesto, Potato and Green Bean Salad
From "Eat More Vegetables" by Tricia Cornell, a Minnesota author who set out to help us cook through the excess of a CSA basket or overly ambitious farmers market run. It's organized by season, with ideas for making the most of the bounty. She's not a vegetarian, although many of the options in the book qualify, and completely non-preachy. 

I heard about this book courtesy of a fellow book grouper, who has tried many recipes from the book and claims to have never encountered a dud. She baked a trio of tasty tarts from this book for a recent book group in honor of tome of the month, "The Moveable Feast." Another fabulous menu from Chez Lynn. With her endorsement, I checked the book out of the library to try it out myself. (Given that my cookbook shelves are already overrun, a trial run seemed in order.) I've already renewed it once, and I'm hoping an upcoming vacation will give me time to explore it more fully.


Ingredients:
1 pound small potatoes, scrubbed and cut into bite-size pieces
1 pound green beans
1/2 cup pesto

Method:
Place potatoes in a saucepan. Sprinkle with salt and cover with a generous amount of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until just tender, probably less than 20 minutes. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Trim ends off green beans, snap into pieces. Steam until tender, then plunge into cold water or the freezer to stop cooking process.

Place potatoes and beans in a serving bowl. Toss with pesto. Season with salt if needed. (If you're using purchased pesto instead of your own, there's probably enough salt involved already.)  Serve at room temperature. Serves 8.

Rating: Not bad, and fast. A different variation on potato salad that's good for picnic purposes since there's no mayo involved.

I used a mix of wax and green beans to add even more color.