Posts tagged pesto
Why not? – Spaghetti squash with artichoke pesto
Jun 8th
Perchè no? – Zucca spaghetti con pesto ai carciofini
Crushing these gorgeous baby artichokes into a pesto broke my heart. I have always wanted to make artichoke pesto but never really managed to turn the artichokes into a paste. They’re so cute and delicious as hearts that really putting them through a mixer, is something I hate to do. Today, I got the courage to do it. Here, we got something different and quite delicious. Honestly, I am not sure I will have the courage to to this again. I simply love to bite into an artichoke heart, I love the crunchy bite, it’s that simple. You could use this pesto on pasta of course, or as a sauce for grilled meats…or even to spread it on some country bread.
When you’re eating spaghetti squash prepared this way, you almost forgot, it’s not pasta. I undercooked the squash to get a crunchy bite, to get the “al dente” feeling. I loved this pesto. Now for the vegan crowd, you can omit the parmesan and add more walnuts. I use very little parmesan to enhance this pesto a tiny bit. You don’t want to add too much cheese either and overpower the natural delicious flavor of the artichokes.
This pesto tends to be lighter than regular basil/pine nuts pesto, its texture is more dense too, so I added a few tablespoons of water to make it creamier.
I am flying tomorrow for France, to go see my father who had a stroke last December, so I will try to post a few local recipes, in the meantime, have a nice and colorful June.
Ingredients for 2 as a main course
- 1 large spaghetti squash
- 1 lb artichokes, trimmed and cleaned
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1/2 cup basil
- 2 tbs raw unsalted walnuts
- 1 garlic clove, crushed + 1 chopped
- 2 tbs parmesan (optional)
- 3 tbs olive oil
- water
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut the squash lengthwise, wrap in parchment paper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Remove seeds first, then the spaghetti pulp. Set aside and keep warm. Save eight artichokes quarters for decoration
Heat up a pan, add the crushed garlic, stir and add baby artichokes cut in quarters. Adjust with salt and pepper, add 2 tbs white wine, and cover, decrease heat and let cook until tender. Let it cool.
For the pesto, mix artichokes with all other ingredients a mixer. Adjust with water if the pesto is too thick.
Add pesto to the spaghetti squash and mix well using your hands, to coat the squash with the pesto. Serve with an extra tablespoon of pesto on top and four artichokes quarters on each plate.
For lazy days – Quinoa, grilled zucchini, chickpeas en verrine with almond pesto and goat cheese
Dec 7th
Pour les jours paresseux – Quinoa, courgettes grillées, pois chiches en verrine en couches de chèvre et pesto
Yes, this is definitely a dish for one of those lazy days, not lazy “like sitting on the sofa”, but lazy “like not feeling to cook” but with a desire to eat something good.
After waiting for a while after for people all day, first to come check out some windows for replacement (and not showing up), for phone calls unreturned, you get into a strange mood and wondering what is wrong. Is it the muggy weather? Is there something up in the air that makes people unreliable? I have no idea. I guess some days are just like that. Well so for one of those days, this is the perfect little thing to do, that will not leave your kitchen messy.
Verrines have been quite popular in France, you just fill them with whatever you like for a fun presentation. Basically, the glass is filled with layers of quinoa, pesto, goat cheese. It can be served lukewarm or cold as a salad or appetizer.
Ingredients for 4
- 250 g quinoa
- vegetable broth
- 6 tbs chick peas (soaked in water or canned)
- 3 zucchini, sliced crosswise
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 4 tbs goat cheese
For the pesto
- 70 g peeled almonds
- 1 garlic clove
- 40 g parmigiano Reggiano, grated
- 50 g basil
- zest of 1 lemon
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Steam quinoa in vegetable broth by adding enough broth to cover the quinoa by 1/2 inch. Bring broth to a boil, then cover with a lid and reduce heat to the minimum. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid. The other and quicker alternative is to cook quinoa in a rice cooker. When quinoa is cooked remove pot from the heat and let it cool a little.
Add chick peas to the quinoa and mix well. Grill zucchini in a grill pan and add to the quinoa-chick pea mixture. Add lemon juice, drizzle with olive oil and adjust with salt and pepper.
For the pesto, combine all ingredients together in a mixer to obtain a semi fine paste.
In a glass, add one layer of quinoa, add a layer of pesto, then a layer of goat cheese. Start over with a layer of quinoa. Top it off with some goat cheese, a slice of grilled zucchini and a basil leaf.
My romantic egg – Oeuf cocotte with salmon, asparagus and a cilantro-coconut pesto
Jul 15th
Mon oeuf romantique – Oeuf cocotte au saumon et asperges, pesto de coriandre et noix de coco
Thanks so much for all your kinds words on my previous post, you guys are really wonderful, kind and generous of your time. I do appreciate it a lot.
I think this dish is perfect for a tête à tête dinner (according to the dictionary, tête à tête is also used in English) to share with someone you care. I have been alone for about two weeks now, due to business trips of TP so I decided to have a tête à tête dinner with myself and I was quite happy about it.
Well, I think no matter what, you need to treat yourself as often as you can (that’s my theory on life) and enjoy anything even if you are by yourself.
My dog and bird are keeping me company…so temporarily being alone has some good sides and bad sides. You tend to enjoy the whole bed, no daily laundry, no mess around but then when you find a half mouse dead in your patio with just the tale and legs, you have to figure out a way to clean it…I suspect the neighbors cats left it as a present.
After one hour of thinking how to remove it, I was embarrassed to ask my neighbor (the most adorable neighbors you can dream of) but I didn’t want to leave this mess in the patio and lacked courage to pick it up, so I had to tell them that Mr. Cat must have played too hard with a mouse again, so Gary cleaned it up for me. Thanks Gary!
We do use cilantro and coconut in French cuisine, even though it’s not really something you would use on a daily basis, and parsley is more frequently used than cilantro, those two ingredients are not unfamiliar to our cuisine. This fragrant pesto is delicious, the raw coconut adds a smooth finish to the dish. Oeuf cocotte is such a versatile dish and so much fun to eat. You can also use fava beans instead of the asparagus and white fish instead of the salmon, just play with it.
This combination is truly a harmonious blend of flavors, and a perfect little dish for a light diner en amoureux… or a diner for treating yourself!
Ingredients for 4
- 2 salmon fillet or 7 oz (or 200 g), diced
- 6 asparagus, cut in one inch pieces
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 3 tbs dry white wine
- 3 tbs crème fraîche
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 2 eggs
- salt and pepper
For the cilantro-coconut pesto
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 0.70 oz (or 20 g) raw unsweetened coconut shredded
- 4 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the cilantro-coconut pesto
Mix all ingredients in a blender.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add asparagus, wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until asparagus are cooked but still crunchy. Add salmon and cook for a few minutes. Add 2 tbs of pesto and stir for 30 seconds. Add cream and let it reduce a little.
Divide teh mixture into ramequins. Break on egg on top, add salt and pepper. Cook in a pre-heated oven until the yolks are runny and the whites still a little transparent. Serve with extra pesto on the side.
A different kind of pesto from Sicily – Homemade spinach tagliatelle with pesto alla trapanese
Jun 24th
Un altro tipo di pesto Siciliano – Linguine agli spinaci con pesto alla trapanese
You can really tell someone is Italian by the quantity of pasta they eat…my family eats pasta almost every day…unlike me…I eat it once in a while, which can be a good reason to question my Italian nationality, let’s hope they don’t come and take away my Italian passport!! Oh well, I guess I am not much of a habit type of a person and that habits somehow disturb me and can give me anxiety. Some people find comfort in habits, in my case it’s the opposite.
Everyone knows pesto which a famous paste made out with raw ingredients, that traveled beyond many borders. Of course there are many recipes for pesto using different ingredients and herbs. This particular pesto is called alla Trapanese, meaning Trapano style, after Trapano, a city in Sicily. This pesto is made with almonds and raw tomatoes ; you get a very fresh and light sauce which makes it so delicious.
To transform the pasta and make it into a fun and original mixture, I love to flavor the dough with vegetables or herbs. You can add anything you want, saffron, mushrooms, tomato paste, broccoli, etc…and color your plate and pleasure your eyes and palate!
If you want to keep this dish vegan don’t add the yolk in the pasta, it will turn out fine, and don’t add pecorino, and you’ll get an absolutely delicious vegan pasta dish.
Ingredients for 2
For the pasta
- 100 g semolina flour
- 100 g farro flour
- 100 g spinach, cooked (about one bunch spinach raw)
- 1 egg yolk
For the pesto
- 3 well ripe tomatoes, peeled and seedless
- about 20 basil leaves
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 tbs almonds
- 6 tbs olive oil
- 4 tbs pecorino
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the pesto
Pat dry peeled and seedless tomatoes to remove excess water. Using a mortar, blend all together together (except for pecorino) into a fine paste. Set aside. You can use a mixer but make sure not to blend the mixture into extra fine paste, you want some texture.
For the pasta
Combine all flours together in a mixing container. Add purée spinach and yolk, and start kneading the dough thoroughly for about 20-30 minutes. At this point, the dough will be elastic and smooth.
On a large wooden board (spianatoia), with a pasta rolling pin, make a thin sheet. You can use a pasta machine if you have one and not used to rolling pasta sheets.
Cook pasta in boiling water for a few minutes, drain and toss with pesto. Add pecorino and serve hot.
More pesto stories – Penne with broccoli rabe-almond pesto and shrimps
Feb 22nd
Storie di pesto – Penne con pesto alle cime di rapa e gamberi
Lately, I have been too busy and hundred things to take care of, which in my world means no sleep and no time for anything including cooking and of course, deep under eye circles. Those cernes how we call them in French make me look like a zombie, it’s amazing how lack of sleep can make you look like ten years older. Even make up doesn’t seem to work. Quelle horreur!!
When I have no time to cook, pasta is always my favorite number one solution, and the one that comes into my mind. It’s fast, nutritious and delicious. It certainly will not make my cernes go away, but at least, my other part of the body will feel rested and happy.
Pesto is a very versatile and can be made with many vegetables. Of course, the original pesto is from Liguria region and made with pine nuts, basil parmesan, olive oil and garlic. When I think of pesto, I think of Genoa, therefore of Cristoforo Colombo, our dear explorer who somehow “discovered” America. He might have not “discovered” anything but his statue is erected at Coit Tower in San Francisco. The first time my parents came visit, I had to take my dad see Cristoforo statue and the jail cell of Al Capone in Alcatraz and I could see my dad’s excitement, 12 years later he still talks about this.
This pesto has everything Pesto alla Genovese has except for cheese, then broccoli rabe is the main ingredient. I don’t like to mix cheese and shrimps in general in pasta dishes so I omitted the cheese because parmesan being quite strong and shrimps being quite strong too, the mixture of both can be too overwhelming. The broccoli rabe is not really cooked just boiled for 30 seconds so you get a beautiful greenish color and fragrant fresh flavor.
Ingredients for 4
- 11.28 oz (or 320 g) penne
- 1 bunch broccoli rabe
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 1/2 bunch basil leaves
- 6 tbs olive oil
- 3 tbs sliced almond
- about 10 shrimps, deveined
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Boil 2 cups of water, when the water boil, add broccoli rabe and let cook for about 30 seconds, remove from stove and drain.
In a mixer proceed like you would for regular pesto, combining all ingredients together, and blend until a semi-thin consistency, not like a smooth paste.
Remove shells and devein shrimps. Cut them in 3 small pieces. Saute in olive oil until cooked.
Cook pasta al dente, drain and place in a mixing pasta bowl. Add pesto and shrimps, mix well and serve.
Vegetables inside and out – Carrot tagliolini with zucchini-walnut pesto
Aug 26th
Verdura fuori e dentro – Tagliolini di carote con pesto alle zucchine e noci
More on the homemade vegetable pasta chapter… I am in my Italian cooking phase, I left French food aside and going back to my roots. Playing with pasta is a lot of fun. I love making homemade pasta, and having my hands in flour. Kneading the dough, relaxes me, it’s like a therapeutic anti-anxiety session. So I guess it’s better than taking Xanax!
I Found my pasta machine after searching for an hour, it was stuck at the bottom of a drawer, hidden with hundred of other kitchen utensils. I did not feel like using rolling pin (mattarello) this time, the beet tagliatelle were quite time consuming and I did not have time. Making those carrot tagliolini took a lot longer than when making regular pasta with plain flour and no vegetable, because the dough was somehow soft, due to the carrots and the water they contain. So I had to add flour constantly to prevent dough from sticking.
I’m not sure how to translate tagliolini in English, maybe angel hair? I think angel hair are thinner than those. My grandma used to make tagliolini in a tomato broth and we would eat them in a soup-based consistency. Tagliolini are a typical traditional pasta, larger than capellini but narrower than tagliatelle. When made fresh, they cook fast and usually they’re served with light sauces.
If you have a regular pasta machine (I have an Imperia one), it comes with that particular cut, it’s the thinner one (the other one is the tagliatelle cut). If you make the pasta with rolling pin, it needs to be about 2mm large
Zucchini pesto is quite tasty with a lighter texture than regular pesto since it mostly contains zucchini, you can slightly taste the flavor of zucchini which tends to be bland, but enhanced with basil, and parmesan.
Ingredients for 4
For the pasta
- 3 cups white flour + more flour
- 2 eggs
- 200g pureed carrots
For the pesto
- 2 zucchini
- 3 tbs walnuts, chopped
- 3 tbs freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
- 2 garlic cloves
- 10 basil leaves
- 3 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the pasta
Cook carrots in water until well cooked all the way through. Drain, let cool and puré with a potato masher, or a mixer so that you get a smooth and thin cream. Place in a mixing bowl, add flour, egg and mix to get a homogeneous dough. Remove from bowl and start kneading on a flat surface. At this point, you might need to constantly add flour, so that dough does not stick to the working surface. Proceed like you would make regular pasta sheets with your pasta machine.
For the pesto
Cut zucchini in medium size pieces. Place in a blender with the other ingredients and blend to a medium consistency. Adjust with some additional olive oil if the pesto is a little thick and blend a little more.
Cook pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water for one minute and drain. Toss with pesto and serve hot.
Grilled pepper tuna steak with parsley-lemon pesto and medley of vegetables
Jul 24th
Steak de thon grillé au poivre avec pesto de persil et citron – mélange de légumes et pois chiches
I don’t know about you, but I cannot get tired of eating fish and seafood. Ideally, I would like to become a complete vegetarian and stop contributing to the pollution of our planet by consuming animal based food, but I think I have not quite reached that level of dedication, maybe one day, hopefully soon. In the meantime, I will keep playing with fish and seafood and try to come up with wonderful ways to cook it.
Even if Ahi tuna tends to be more popular in restaurants, sometimes, I like the white flesh and lighter flavor of the albacore tuna. Ahi is fattier than albacore and is mainly used for sushis.
As you know, pesto can be made with all kinds of ingredients, this particular kind is parsley-lemon based, the lemon zest flavors the mixture wonderfully and you get this zesty-citrusy taste that goes perfectly well with the fish. You can use leftover pesto to serve with grilled chicken as well, or any white meat such as pork.
Ingredients for 2
For the tuna
- 2 albacore tuna steaks
- 1 tbs coarse black pepper, grinded
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the parsley-lemon pesto
- 1 bunch flat parsley
- 2 garlic cloves
- zest of one lemon
- 3 tbs pine nuts
- olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- salt and pepper
For the vegetable medley
- 1 fennel head, finely sliced
- 2 zucchini, sliced
- 1/2 can chick peas or 4 tbs of overnight soaked chick peas
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- garlic powder
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the pesto, mix all ingredients together in a mixer, and add enough oil to get a smooth consistency. You can keep it in a air-tight container for a couple of days.
Char broiled the red bell pepper in the oven, close to the broiler, and when the skin is dark and grilled, remove from the oven and let cool. Remove peel, and seeds, then cut in strips.
In a grill pan, grill all other vegetables, and place in a container, add chick peas, and red pepper strips. Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Grind black pepper and coat the tuna steaks in it. Add salt and balsamic vinegar, then broil under broiler for a few minutes until the tuna is cooked but do not overcook or it will get dry.
Serve with a tbs of pesto on top of tuna and vegetables on the side.
More pesto adventures – Fake tacconi with rucola-pistachio pesto and asparagus
Jun 22nd
Ancora una storia di pesto – Tacconi finti con pesto di rucola-pistacchi e asparagi
I have been thinking about this recipe for a while that my grandmother used to make when I was a child, called tacconi. I loved those so much, because they’re always remained a little crunchy and I have always loved pasta that remains al dente, even more al dente than it should be. I would never eat overcooked pasta. My grandmother used to make a ton of those tacconi on Sunday and distribute them between my parents and I and my oncle and kids (since we all lived in the same house, different floors). That was the Sunday treat.
Tacconi are some rustic pasta from Marche region made with half fava bean flour and half regular flour. They’re cut thick and long and are served with a garlic tomato sauce.
I could not find just 100% fava bean flour, so the closest I could get is a mixture of half chick pea, half fava bean flour. Instead of white flour, I used whole wheat flour, that’s why those tacconi have a deep brownish hearty color.
Now the original tacconi have a different shape too, they look like thick spaghetti, not short like those gnocchi shape little nuggets. Actually, I somehow reproduced the shape of gnocchi sardi, called malloreddus. Obviously this dish is somehow a result of two Italian cuisines, the Sardinian and the Marchiggiana…then if you think that pesto is from Genoa, then it combines three cuisines.
As for the pesto, rucola pesto is something I really love, the bitterness of wild rucola mixed with parmesan and pistacchios make a wonderful combination. The asparagus add another green and delicate touch.
Ingredients for 4
For the pasta
- 1/2 cup fava bean flour (or mixed chick pea and fava bean flours if just fava bean not available)
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- water
For the pesto
- 2 cups of wild rucola
- 3 tbs pistacchios
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 tbs parmigiano reggiano
- 4 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 bunch asparagus
Preparation
Start preparing the pesto. Mix all ingredients in a mixer and mix until medium consistency, you don’t want to pesto to be too thin, but with some grainy texture, and feel the pistachios.
Cut asparagus in about 1 inch length and cook in boiling water for about 5 minutes or until cooked but still firm.
For the tacconi, mix both flours together in a bowl and add enough water to make a dough that is not sticky or soft but rather thick and dense. Remove from the bowl, and transfer to a well-floured surface, add flour if necessary. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.
Let rest in a plastic wrap for about 30 minutes.
Cut the dough in about 2 or three pieces and roll dough into a 1/8 inch cylinder, and cut into 1/4 inch pieces. Roll each piece pressing with your thomb on a gnocchi board or a fork to give it some ridges. Repeat process with all the dough.
Bring water to a boil, add salt. Transfer the tacconi and cook for about 6-7 minutes.
Drain, transfer to a bowl, add pesto and asparagus. Mix well but carefully not to break tacconi nor asparagus.
Lentil and Shrimp simple story – Split pea soup, lentils with shrimps and pistachio cilantro pesto
Jun 8th
Une histoire toute simple de lentilles et de crevettes – Soupe de lentilles et pois cassés au crevettes et pesto de pistaches, coriandre et persil
It’s a nice and cute story of lentils and shrimps, but then many other ingredients got involved…and we have a nice and complex soup filled with vitamins and flavors. Not that it is necessarily soup season but I think that you have to eat whatever you feel like despite the season, ice cream in winter and soup in summer is perfectly fine.
It’s a light soup, brothy enhanced with pistachio pesto. I did not add parmesan to the pesto, I think its strong flavor can alter the shrimp flavor, most of the time I don’t really like to mix cheese and fish.
You don’t have to soak the lentils, they cook relatively quickly comparing to the other dry beans. Lentils are filled with iron, protein and fibers so don’t hesitate add them into your diet. I like to use French green lentils (lentilles du Puy), they tend to keep their shape and don’t get as mushy as the brown ones, besides they tend to have more flavor. In France, lentilles du Puy is the first vegetable that has AOC (appellation d’origine controllée) thanks to its specific nutritious values. You can check out the national site for Lentilles du Puy.
Ingredients for 4
For the soup
- 24 medium size uncooked shrimps, deveined
- 3/4 cups French green lentils (duPuy)
- 3/4 cups split peas
- 1 leek, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 celeri sticks, chopped
- 1/2 head of radicchio, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cloves
- olive oil
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- salt and pepper
For the pistachio pesto
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1/2 cup cilantro
- 2 tbs unsalted pistachios
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot, add onions and brown them. Add the rest of the chopped vegetables. Stir all vegetables, and let cook for about 10 minutes to blend all flavors. Add split peas and lentils, cloves and bay leaf, mix well and cover with broth. Add salt and pepper. Cover and cook at medium heat for about 30 minutes or until the lentils and peas are cooked.
For the pesto, mix all ingredients in a blender, and blend to a medium consistency.
Saute shrimps in 1 tsp olive oil, add salt and pepper.
Serve soup with shrimps in the middle and a tbs of pesto on top of the shrimps.
