I originally started this blog as a way to learn to cook and to catalog recipes I enjoyed. So, recently, I have been revisiting recipes from early in my blogging journey and remaking them, like this recipe for Salmon with Lemon Parsley Pesto, served with orzo.
One of my favorite cookbooks right now is Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky. If you haven’t heard of it, be sure to check it out. It’s filled with awesome recipes geared toward athletes, so I reference it all the time to make quick meals for my runner husband on weeknights.
A favorite recipe of ours from the cookbook is Pesto Pasta with Sardines, which got me thinking about anchovies, and how awesome they would be incorporated into classic pesto for an added boost of omega-3s, vitamin A, protein, iron, and a whole bunch more (those little guys really pack a nutritional punch!)
This pesto is freezable so it’s perfect as a make ahead condiment for super busy nights. It’s also super quick to make!
Ingredients (makes 1 pint):
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for storing
I’ve mentioned before that once warmer weather is here, I make it a priority to use my grill instead of my oven/stovetop whenever I can, like with this recipe for Grilled Lamb Pita Pockets. It keeps the temperature down in my house, and it’s super easy to grill! Plus, who doesn’t love the flavor that grilling adds to food?
I had a craving for lamb this week, so I decided to make grilled lamb pita pockets for dinner one night. I grilled lamb meatballs on skewers and then topped the meatballs with a drizzle of tzatziki and a Greek-inspired pesto sauce with some extra feta and cucumbers for good measure. I unfortunately didn’t have any tomatoes on hand, but would strongly suggest adding chopped tomatoes as well!
You can never have too many weeknight meals, especially chicken recipes! For this dinner, I combined two Cooking Light recipes (Pesto Chicken with Blistered Tomatoes and Orzo and Herb Pilaf) to make one dinner, and served it with a simple salad on the side.
Any recipe that uses pesto is a winner in my book. This particular pesto uses spinach, basil, and parsley to deliver a more complex flavor.
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DareToPair #CollectiveBias
Hooray for spring! The weather may be warming up, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up my beloved pasta! However, I can at least lighten up my weekly pasta a bit. My favorite way to add a little spring to my pasta? Pesto, like in this recipe for Roasted Tomato Pesto Pasta!
Pairing fresh ingredients with pasta can really lighten up a comfort food favorite like pasta. I added in some slow roasted cherry tomatoes to add a bit of tomatoey goodness to the dish.
Barilla has a few Better for You Pasta’s to make lightening up you pasta dish even easier. I picked up a box of Barilla ProteinPLUS Rotini Pasta from Walmart; other options available at Walmart include Whole Grain Pasta, Veggie Pasta and Gluten Free Pasta.
Note: there is a great Ibotta offer right now for Buy any 3 select varieties of Barilla Products and earn $1.00 at Walmart! Details can be found at the link above.
Barilla ProteinPLUS has 17g of protein from all-natural vegetarian ingredients, so it’s a great way to add more protein to your pasta meals without adding meat or seafood.
Ingredients:
2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese
1 box of Barilla ProteinPLUS Rotini (or Spaghetti)
During Choctoberfest, I was sent a pretty sweet package of goodies from Just Hemp Foods, including Hemp Protein Powder (which I used in these muffins), Hemp Seeds, and Hemp Oil.
This weekend, I finally cracked into the Hemp Seed Oil. I had a bunch of basil that I knew I couldn’t use up before it wilted, so I made pesto, or more specifically, Hemp Seed Basil Pesto!
Hemp Seed Oil delivers a subtle nutty taste, so it’s perfect in a pesto. The oil contains the ideal 3:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio which supports heart health. Hemp Seed Oil degrades with light and heat, so it’s best to refrigerate it and use it cold. The oil has a green color to it, so it really makes the basil pop!
We are in that weird beginning-of-fall/end-of-summer phase right now, where the weather can be anywhere from 50-80 degrees. So my weeknight dinners are just as random. I keep going in between comfort food choices like Mushroom and Sausage Ragu over Polenta to lighter meals like Autumn Apple Salad with Cinnamon Honey Dijon Dressing. So sticking with tradition and flip flopping again, after posting a recipe for Pumpkin Cake Bites earlier this week, I bring you a seafood pasta recipe with pesto!
This recipe uses arugula as the primary ingredient in the pesto, so it’s really perfect for this time of year. It also comes together in no time (which is why I love meals that use pesto) while adding such freshness to a recipe.
I have another busy week this week so I needed some easy meals that can be prepared quickly. Pasta is usually a great option and this recipe for Cheese Ravioli with Pesto is no exception. It comes together in about 15 minutes!
I found this recipe on Cooking Light. The pesto is more of a “pesto” and stays pretty chunky. But don’t be fooled, those little flecks of green are packed with flavor!
Yes, it’s technically spring. But. It snowed last night here. So it’s not time just yet to delve into super springy recipes. Sigh.
So this recipe for Pesto Pasta with Peas is a happy medium. The bright green color is a nod that spring weather is (hopefully) not too far away. It is still a warm dish though, so it is good for colder nights. (This recipe from Inda Garten is originally a pasta salad, so it can absolutely be eaten cold as well)
Ingredients:
Pesto:
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pine nuts
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pasta:
3/4 pound fusilli pasta
3/4 pound bow tie pasta
fresh pesto (see recipe below), to taste
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
This weekend, I was looking for a quick meal to feed myself and a bunch of friends. I wanted something that doesn’t really involve a sit-down meal but would fill everyone up. Homemade pizza is perfect for situations like this. You can add whatever toppings you want and can even make a bunch of smaller pizzas to have variety. I found this recipe for Artichoke and Arugula Pizza with Prosciutto from Cooking Light and basically stuck to the recipe. I did substitute in fresh pesto instead of the jarred stuff and I’d suggest doing the same. Fresh pesto is so much tastier and it really doesn’t take long to make.
I love a fresh pesto, it brightens up any dish and just screams spring. I made Fettuccine with Seared Tomatoes, Spinach, and Burrata earlier this week and had some spinach left over. Cooking Light’s latest issue had a recipe for Linguine with Spinach Herb Pesto which uses spinach, basil, oregano, and time to make a creamy pesto sauce. How great does that sound??
Ingredients:
4 ounces fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup slivered blanched almonds
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 large garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons organic vegetable broth
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice (~1/2 a lemon), plus zest from 1/2 a lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated and divided (about 1/4 cup)
Brunch appeals to my indecisive side: I love not having to choose between breakfast or lunch. Philadelphia is a huge brunch town so almost every weekend I have the opportunity to have an awesome brunch at a local coffee shop or restaurant. This weekend, I decided to stay home for brunch and try out this delicious sounding recipe from Cooking Light. The recipe includes mushrooms, a fried egg, tomatoes, and pesto … did they make this recipe especially for me?!
Ingredients (this makes 4 servings):
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided (I used basil olive oil)
1 cup thinly sliced shallots, divided
3 portobello mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
8 teaspoons refrigerated pesto (or fresh, check out my recipe here)
The wonderful people at Nudo sent me a new product on their site: the Squadra Italiana Set which includes cold press olive oil, olive oil with Sicilian chillies, and a free tin of extra virgin olive oil stone ground with fresh basil. These olive oils are absolutely wonderful on their own, to just dip breads in. But I wanted to add that extra punch of basil to this dish so I used the basil olive oil to add a little bit more flavor. Expect these tasty olive oils to show up in quite a few posts in the coming weeks. (You can get your own Squadra Italiana Set here)
If you’re making your own pesto, do that first. It takes maybe 5 minutes and tastes considerably better (at least I think so).
Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to the pan and swirl to coat. Add 2/3 cup shallots and cook for 3 minutes.
Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the wine, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, scraping the pan to loosen up the brown bits. Cook for 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring occasionally. Remove the mushroom mixture from the pan and keep warm. Preheat your broiler.
Return the pan to medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil to the pan, swirling to coat. Add the remaining 1/3 cup shallots and saute for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan and keep warm.
Spread 2 teaspoons pesto over one side of each bread slice. Top each slice with 2 tablespoons cheese.
Broil for 2 minutes and set aside.
Return the pan to medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil to the pan and swirl to coat. Crack the eggs into the pan and cook until whites set, about 4 minutes.
Boy did I botch this egg. Oh well, it will still taste good!
Top each bread slice with 2 tomato slices.
Divide the mushroom mixture evenly among the bread slices. Top each serving with 1 egg. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon pepper, shallots and basil.
This is quite the meal!
I loved the meatiness of the mushrooms which went so well with the egg. Tomatoes are in season right now so they were absolutely perfect in this dish. And my pesto was pretty darn good if I do say so myself 🙂 This meal, although it’s called a “sandwich” definitely required a fork and knife, and even then got a bit messy. But that’s part of the fun!
We have been having such a warm spring in Philadelphia. So if the weather is going to pretend it is summer, I will as well! To me, summer means tomatoes, corn, pesto, pasta salad, and of course, grilling.
Before I go into this recipe for Grilled Tomato Orzo Salad in a Tomato Bowl, first I want to tell you about Lipman Tomatoes. Lipman Tomatoes, a business-to-business company that has been supplying tomatoes and other vegetables to grocery stores and restaurants for 70 years, is about to launch a consumer-focused brand and website. Lipman contacted me about developing a recipe to celebrate their launch, which is the perfect opportunity for me to give into my “summer fever”. I decided to make a Grilled Tomato Orzo Salad served in a Tomato Bowl. (Update: the site is now live! Check out my recipe here!)
Lipman sent me an awesome assortment of their tomatoes. I decided to use the grape tomatoes for grilling, and the Vintage Ripe (a beautiful heirloom tomato) as my tomato bowls. The assortment also came with some cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes so expect me to be on quite the tomato kick in the coming days!
Ingredients:
4 large Vintage Ripe tomatoes
1 cup orzo
4 cups vegetable broth
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 corn on the cob (or 1/3 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed)
8 oz mozzarella balls (if you cant get marinated mozzarella balls, even better!)
Nothing tastes as fresh as homemade pesto. It is surprisingly easy to make and really blows the store-bought stuff out of the water. With a whopping 5 ingredients (plus salt and pepper), pesto is definitely something you need to try to make if you haven’t already! I made this to go with my gnocchi that I made for a food swap.
Ingredients (makes about 1 cup):
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup walnuts
3 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Add the basil leaves and walnuts to a food processor.
Pulse a few times to combine.
Mince your garlic.
Add to the food processor.
Pulse to combine.
While the food processor is running, add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream.
Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse to combine.
Season with salt and pepper.
You can add more of whichever ingredient you think you need more of at any time. I prefer my pesto to be relatively firm, so I don’t use a lot of olive oil to make mine. I also tend to add more cheese on top of my pasta anyways, so I limit the amount of cheese I put into the pesto. You can also use pine nuts instead of walnuts; I just prefer walnuts.
Be sure to use high quality ingredients for this recipe if you can. Because none of it is cooked, you want basil when it is fresh, high quality olive oil with a smooth taste, and a nicely aged cheese. A little pesto goes a long way when used as a topping on pasta, so this recipe can luckily be frozen to use at a later date as well!
I am in a pasta salad making mood, so I decided to make one more batch for this weekend. I already made one pasta salad for this weekend, but I have a bunch of these ingredients on hand from other recipes and I don’t want them to go bad over the long weekend. I used a recipe from My Recipes as a base and substituted ingredients I already had, and ended up with this Pesto Pasta Salad!
Ingredients for the pesto:
1 or 2 bunches of packed fresh basil
1 bunch of packed fresh parsley
4 garlic cloves, minced
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup walnuts (or toasted pine nuts)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Ingredients for the salad:
1 box gemelli or other short pasta
1 small container plain 2 percent Greek yogurt
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
3 small cucumbers, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese
Cook the pasta according to the “al dente” directions on the package. Drain and run under cold water. Set aside.
To make the pesto, combine the basil, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and walnuts in a food processor. (I ended up being just short of 1/3 cup walnuts, so I also added in a few toasted pine nuts.) Blend until smooth. Pour in olive oil and blend until there is a thick paste. Add the Parmesan and combine until blended. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
Prepare all of your vegetables. After chopping the red onion, run it under cold water to remove some of the bite. Slice your cucumbers and halve your tomatoes.
Combine the pesto and Greek yogurt in a large bowl.
Add the pasta and vegetables and toss to coat.
Because I am making this for the weekend, I only made a tiny batch fully mixed so I could taste it. The pesto mixture is so so creamy that you honestly might not even need the feta. The tomatoes and red onions add a wonderful contrast to the pesto and the cucumbers add a nice crunch to the salad. I will try to take some photos this weekend of the fully assembled salad, but if it is anything close to what I just sampled, I think my friends will be happy.
Cook the pasta according to the “al dente” directions on the package. Drain and run under cold water. Set aside.
To make the pesto, combine the basil, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and walnuts in a food processor. (I ended up being just short of 1/3 cup walnuts, so I also added in a few toasted pine nuts.) Blend until smooth. Pour in olive oil and blend until there is a thick paste. Add the Parmesan and combine until blended. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
Prepare all of your vegetables. After chopping the red onion, run it under cold water to remove some of the bite. Slice your cucumbers and halve your tomatoes.
Combine the pesto and Greek yogurt in a large bowl.
