Green Pea & Pesto Salad

This is a hearty salad derived from a Barefoot Contessa recipe. It has been recommended by my sister-in-law J. and her friends. I have made this recipe slightly heavy on the parmesan and pine nuts.

Ingredients:
4-5 ounces of sturdy salad greens- baby spinach leaves and/or arugula
(This weight is equivalent to one of those clear boxes of greens that you can find in most grocery stores or to a good sized salad bowl full of greens).
1&1/4 cups of frozen peas , thawed and drained if they end up sitting in a pool of water
½ cup prepared basil pesto
1/3 – 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 -3 tablespoons of pine nuts

Wash and dry the greens and place them in a salad bowl with the peas. Add the pesto, cheese and pine nuts and toss. If the pesto is too thick, thin it with some olive oil before placing on the greens. If you can spring for it, buy a small chunk of parmesan cheese and grate it yourself. I fear that this salad will not taste the same using the grated parmesan that you shake from a box. The way to make the pine nuts really tasty is to briefly toast them in a heavy skillet on the stove. As soon as they start turning brown remove them from the heat. Cool the nuts before adding to the salad.