Hasselback Potatoes with Spinach Pesto

There are nights when I love nothing more than to prepare a meal that takes a variety of ingredients and a few hours to prepare. I do, after all, love the process of cooking. It's possibly one of my greatest pleasures. But, like the rest of human kind, there are nights when all I want is something to eat that takes little effort. I want the actions to be swift, the ingredient list to be manageable and if something is going to take a bit of time, I'd prefer that time to not require constant babysitting, actions and/or work.

This dinner, or even side dish, is just that. While the cooking time clocks in at the hour-mark, it's nearly all hands-off. This means that in the meantime, you can do all sorts of things; laundry, a bit of straightening up, dishes, emails or, if you're like me, doing nothing at all sounds mighty fine.

There are nights when we all need a bit of a break and just sit with a potato and a bowl full of pesto. Some of you might not consider this dinner, feel free to call it a side dish, but this girl enjoys nothing more than sitting in front of the television with a bowl full of homemade food that took mere minutes to throw together. 

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Adrianna Adarme is a food blogger and author living in Los Angeles, California. She writes the blog A Cozy Kitchen, where she shares comforting, everyday recipes from her kitchen. She recently authored her first cookbook, PANCAKES: 72 Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Perfect Stack. She's a lover of breakfast, pie (and sometimes even pie for breakfast), corgis and cute things. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.