Pantry/Freezer Dinner - Pesto Baked Tilapia

So I know basil isn't in season yet, but my boyfriend and I are huge pesto lovers and I was craving it tonight. We just got back from a long weekend at our alma mater and there is nothing in the fridge. I was not in the mood to fight the weekend crowds at the grocery store, so it's a pantry/freezer kind of night. What do I have handy? Jars of pesto, dried spaghetti, frozen tilapia filets. I can work with this.

This was delicious and really easy. On a night where I felt like putting in zero effort and still wanted something that would taste good, it was just what I needed.

Now, I've never made my own pesto, my basil plants only seem to produce a few leaves and then die. I have no green thumb. But that's a whole different project (soon to come!). I like the Classico jarred pesto, which is easy to find, shelf-stable, and not terribly expensive. I think with a quick stir, it's pretty darn delicious.

One of my go-to instant dinners is spaghetti with pesto. But the boyfriend isn't as much of a fan of spaghetti-only dinners (too many basic spaghetti+sauce dinners in college), so I decided to try a pesto-baked tilapia.

I thawed 4 tilapia filets, put them in a small baking dish with a little bit of olive oil on the bottom. Then I spread a few tablespoons of pesto and squeezed half a lemon over the filets. I sprinkled some grated Parmesan cheese over the top.

Baked for 10 minutes at 450. While they were baking, I cooked some whole wheat spaghetti according to the box. Once it was cooked, I tossed the pasta with some pesto and a squeeze of lemon juice.

What would I do next time? Use a bigger baking dish. Once I'd put the olive oil in and noticed that 4 tilapia fillets wouldn't fit in my 8" x 8" glass dish, I didn't move them to a bigger one because I didn't want to wash another dish. Yeah, lazy, but it was just one of those nights.

Pesto Baked Tilapia

Ingredients:

4 tilapia fillets  

3 TBSP pesto

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450. Coat the bottom of a baking dish with olive oil. Place tilapia fillets in the dish, season with salt and pepper. Spread the pesto over the top of the fish and drizzle lemon over the top (I just squeezed half a lemon over the fish). Top with Parmesan cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes until the fish is cooked through.