Walnut Pesto with Fried Eggplant and Linguini

Tonight was one of those nights were we just threw together some ingredients for dinner and hoped for the best.
I got a bundle of basil from my CSA last week and I knew I wanted to make pesto with it.  I didn't have pine nuts, so I made the pesto with walnuts instead, it was inspired from this recipe.
It was a little tricky to blend the pesto in a blender instead of a food processor but it we got it to work.  :)

I was really excited we finally had a reason to use the mortar and pestle!  Usually it just sits on our counter looking sad and neglected.

Once the pesto was ready, we put it in the fridge while we prepared the rest of the dinner.  We chopped up an eggplant, and then breaded it.  I boiled some water for the Linguini, while CJ prepared the eggplant by frying it in olive oil.

One the eggplant was ready, and the pasta was al dente, we mixed in the pesto, topped it with mozzarella, and baked it for about 10 minutes.

 While it baked, CJ whipped up a little appetizer using the pesto, and some cheese and crackers.

And the dinner turned out great!  This impromptu dinner was a hit.

 Delicious!