Artichoke Pesto

Due to some miscommunications and a kitchen cabinet that has the ability to hide dry goods within its depths, Tim and I found ourselves the proud owners of not one, not two, but three Costco-sized jars of marinated artichoke hearts recently.

In an effort to work our way through this ridonkulous overabundance of artichoke hearts, I did some Googling on ye olde interwebs and found this artichoke-centric recipe for lemony artichoke pesto.  I followed the recipe, a pretty standard pesto, for the most part, but substituted fresh basil leaves for the parsley, as flat leaf parsley is nowhere to be found in Jakarta.  My nut of choice (or convenience, really) was almonds, toasted, of course.  

Good stuff!  I put it on pizza, topped with mozzarella, halved cherry tomatoes and mushrooms.  It looks pretty good as a pasta sauce, too.  A fun, but not too crazy, adaptation of your typical pesto.

Pepitas Two Ways: Brittle and Pesto

So, this post may be a little too early, in the sense that pepitas, which are hulled pumpkin seeds, are not really in season yet, but I have an excuse.  I bought a bag of roasted, salted pepitas at Trader Joe's back in January when I was in the States, with no particular plan in mind for them.  I brought them back to Jakarta, set them on the counter, and there they sat for six months...  I felt like I needed to use them or lose them, so here we are.  I've got two fall recipes for you...

Pepita Brittle: sweety, salty, crunchy, awesome.  I was a little bit worried about candy making in a humid environment (see: weepy marshmallows, January 2012), but this recipe from Smitten Kitchen was pretty foolproof. 

A spicy pepita pesto, with basil and cilantro, pepitas in the place of pine nuts, lime instead of lemon juice and a chili for heat... served on pasta with roasted squash (I used kabocha squash, but you could do pumpkin, butternut, what have you...):

Creamy Pesto Parmesan Salad Dressing

I had a bunch of leftover homemade basil/cilantro/almond pesto that needed to be used up as well as a craving for a salad.  Did some Googling and came up with this creamy pesto parmesan salad dressing recipe that looked pretty good.  Apparently it's based on a well-loved and much sought-after recipe from the Old Spaghetti Factory.  I've never been to that restaurant, but the dressing sounded pretty nice.  

I put my own twist on it as follows, upping the pesto quantity and subbing in yogurt for the sour cream.  I like how it turned out- tangy, herby and a hint of cheesey. 

Creamy Pesto Parmesan Dressing

Adapted from SavorySweetLife.com

1/4 C plain, unsweetened yogurt

1/4 C mayonnaise

1/4 buttermilk (I mixed milk with a teaspoon of lime juice)

1 TBS finely grated parmesan

3 TBS pesto

Freshly grated black pepper

Mix, chill and pour over salad!

Slow-Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Pasta

Indonesia does a lot of things well... batik, tropical fruits, apples... but one thing I have found to be sub-par are the tomatoes.  Unripe or overly-ripe, but still tasteless. Boo. But occasionally you can find reasonably priced grape tomatoes, which are ok, but do not live up to the amazing heirloom tomatoes I was getting from my CSA back in DC.

One way to ameliorate the bland tomatoes is to slow-roast them like I did last summer... it intensifies the flavor big time.  I used my slow-roasted tomatoes to make an eggplant pasta dish similar to the one I made last summer, but with a pesto made from both basil and mint.  Quite tasty!

Mini Farfalle with Eggplant, Cherry Tomatos, Almond Pesto and Feta

Kate passed on this recipe for labor-inducing eggplant Parmesan so I could share it with Jamie, who was nearing her due-date... it made me hungry for eggplant, which I had conveniently bought from the CSA this week. I didn't have all the ingredients for the parm, but I did have the world's biggest bag of basil, also care of Star Hollow Farm, so I decided to merge the eggplant with some basil pesto and serve it over pasta.Using this recipe from Giada "Boobs and Teeth" De Laurentiis as a general guideline for cooking the eggplant, I chopped it up, sauteed it until brown, and threw it all together with fresh basil pesto (basil, parm, olive oil, almonds, garlic), cute mini farfalle, a pint of halved sweet orange cherry tomatoes, and salty feta. Awesome warm, and also delicious cold the next day.

PS: Yes, the eggplant parmesan apparently did work for Jamie- she went into labor the day after eating it! Introducing my beautiful brand-new baby niece, Zoe:

Pesto Pizza

Easy weeknight dinner:
pesto (basil, garlic, Parmesan, nuts, olive oil, salt, pepper)
mozzarella
fresh tomato slices
whole wheat pizza doughLoad up pizza dough with toppings, cook on super high heat for 10 minutes, devour, done.

Pasta with Arugula Pesto, Toasted Walnuts, Goat Cheese and Beets

This was another "cleaning out the fridge" recipe, or "mixed grill" if you're the Real Martha. Sick of the usual arugula salad with beets, nuts and goat cheese, I decided to look up pasta recipes incorporating those ingredients.Thank you, Google Machine. You have delivered. Yet again.
Hearty, sweet, salty, garlicky. Mmm.

Arugula Pesto

One of the veggies that keeps coming through the CSA despite super cold temperatures is arugula. We've been eating a lot of it recently, and I was looking for a different way to use it.

Simply Recipes had a recipe for arugula pesto with walnuts, and I had some 3-cheese tortellini from Costco, so we gave it a try. Pretty good! Not as sweet as your typical basil pesto-it has the peppery bite of arugula. I really liked the garlic roasting methodology (in the skillet!), too. I think I'll take advantage of that for other recipes calling for roasted garlic.

The pesto was tasty on the tortellini, and also tasty mixed with some mayo on chicken sandwiches the next day. Mmm.

Seared Salmon with Luinguine and Ramp Pesto

This week I got a bundle of ramps in my CSA share. Ramps are wild onions grown and gathered mainly in Appalachia in the spring... they have an oniony, garlicky flavor to them, and you can eat the entire thing- from white bulb to red stems to leafy tops.I thought this salmon recipe with a ramp pesto looked simple and tasty, so we tried it out. Very good! The onion flavor is pretty powerful- no making out for any of us tonight. But delicious anyway!
My trip to the grocery store didn't turn up any Marcona almonds, so I used regular roasted almonds, which worked out fine. Otherwise, I made the recipe as instructed and give it two thumbs up!

Asparagus Pistachio Pesto

Got some of spring's first asparagus and thought this pesto might a good idea. Omitted the spinach and threw in some basil and parsley instead. Pretty good stuff!

Served over rotini with some mushrooms sauteed in garlic and the asparagus tips.

Broccoli Pesto: Meh

Hmmm... I wanted to like this broccoli pesto. It had all of my favorite stinky foods- broccoli, olives, garlic, goat cheese- yet I was not a fan for some reason. It was kinda thick and overwhelming... not enough variation in texture, perhaps?

Chuck totally wasn't fooled by the fact that the olives were all chopped up, either. She hated it. Oh well.

Spaghetti in Meatballs

Tony made spaghetti-in-meatballs with a basil tomato dipping sauce tonight after watching what must have been a particularly riveting episode of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals. They were quite tasty, care of the pesto that's mixed into the meatballs and the dipping sauce. The meatballs are also kinda fun- they could be a good meal to make for kids since they're so funny looking. They kinda remind me of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Crostini with Ricotta and Garlic Scape Pesto

I got some more garlic scapes in my CSA share this week... Randy the farmer says it's the last of them for this season. After seeing the idea on foodgawker, I decided to make some garlic scape pesto, and mix it with some of the ricotta I also got through Randy. Plopped it on some toasty baguette slices... tasty and easy.

Chicken Samiches

Made these grilled chicken sandwiches with apples and sage pesto today to use up some sage and apples from the CSA. Pretty good! Put it on ciabatta from the bread book.