Friday, April 20, 2012

gone green

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 I try my best to keep it fresh on here and not recycle recipes from Porkys past. And this particular pesto is totally the first cousin of one I made about two years ago; however, it’s so stinking good that we need to talk about it again. I made a batch of this last week for a quick pasta dinner and then proceeded to drop it into salad dressing and smear on egg sandwhiches until the lot of it was gone.

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 It’s my new favorite right now for a lot of reasons, the least of which is that it costs a fraction of what regular pesto costs to make and the most of which is that it’s so dang tasty. Last night I made it again to spread on grilled foccacia with a grilled vegetable salad and a bottle of rose. Pink wine and green food: spring has sprung!

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 Standard pesto uses basil and pine nuts, here I used just a few leaves of basil to add to the flavor and three cups of peppery, pungent arugula. I thought that I had walnuts in the freezer, which I was planning on subbing out for the pine nuts, because you need to take a mortgage out to buy a thing of pine nuts and I’ve got a lot more pressing things to spend my duckets on right now. When I realized I didn’t have walnut, or any nuts for that matter besides peanuts, I grabbed some hulled sunflower seeds. They were a perfect addition to this budget pesto, adding just a little fat and texture without offering any sort of overpowering
flavor. Win!

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ARUGULA PESTO 2.0

 2-3 cups arugula
Handful basil leaves
¼ cup roasted sunflower seeds
¼- ½ cup grated parmesan
1 clove garlic
Juice from ½ a lemon
¼ cup- ½ cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Combine all ingredients up to olive oil in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse together to combine well. With the machine running, drizzle in the olive oil until it looks pesto-like. Stop, taste.

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 Add salt, pepper, more lemon juice, a sprinkle more cheese and another drizzle of oil if necessary. Pulse a few more times, taste and season again if necessary. Because this is a true arugula pesto, it will be quite peppery, but the lemon, cheese and oil cut into that pretty nicely.
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 Uses: the night I made this, I roasted a head of broccoli/cauliflower (a fluorescent green hybrid of broccoli and cauliflower that tastes mostly like cauliflower), a bunch of asparagus and some fresh peas.

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I put a pot of pasta water on and cooked up some cavatappi. Toss the pesto with the hot pasta and roasted vegetables for a delicious, easy dinner.

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Try this pesto in place of sauce on a pizza, top with mozzarella and prosciutto. Spread a thin layer on an egg and cheddar sandwich or simply put out with antipasto to spread on bread or crackers. If you’re like me, you might eat it with a spoon standing in front of the refrigerator (don’t judge).

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