PESTO!!!

One one my family's favorite 'condiments' is pesto.  It is so easy to make & the combination of flavors is just wonderful.
We put it on pizza, bread, chicken, pasta and more.
It also freezes well. I freeze pest in ice cube trays then pop them into a zip lock freezer bag when frozen. Anytime that i need a small amount of pesto, I just defrost a pesto cube!

( I think that you are supposed to be able to do this with leftover wine as well, but we usually don't have 'leftover' wine...)

Here is a basic recipe for  Basil Pesto

1 garlic clove; chopped
2 cups fresh basil leaves; loosely packed
1/4 cup pine nuts; toasted  (be careful, they can burn quickly)
approximately 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan
salt & pepper

Place garlic, basil, pine nuts in the bowl of a food processor. Whir until mixture is pureed.  Slowly add olive oil to desired consistency. Stir in parmesan cheese & season with slat & pepper.

I was not able to make this today because we forgot to pick up the pine nuts, but this is the recipe that I use. Classic!



One of the greens that we've received in the last few weeks from Plato's Harvest is arugula.  I absolutely love arugula!! I has a peppery bite to it..  yum!

While it is great as a salad base ( with goat cheese ;)  I wanted to try to use it in another way as well. I found this recipe for arugula pesto.

I did not have pine nuts, so I used pistachios instead. After I shelled them I toasted them. And tasted them. :)

I added a bit of warm water to the mix because I felt that it was a little thick.

The flavor of this pesto is amazing. I think that the blanching of the arugula is to keep that bright green color. I have a tray of it in the freezer right now!!

I'm sure that I will have many more pestos to post  before the end of the summer......

Next up... zucchini!

oxox