What do you do with your pesto?
Tis the season around here to harvest basil and make pesto. I love it so much, I use it as a spread in grilled provolone sandwiches. Other than tossing pasta in yours, what do you do with your pesto? And, do add anything other than basil, olive oil, cheese, and pine nuts? Or use other combinations?
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14 Comments:
I add roasted garlic and hot pepper oil. I mix it into stuffing for stuffed cherry peppers. add it to bread crumbs and use it as a topping for anything.
nelson5757 at 2:58PM on 08/17/07
Garlic confit. But, never, ever do I add cheese. Makes the pesto lose the green color. If I want cheese, I'll grate some on top of whatever it is that I'm eating with my pesto.
cohaagen at 3:40PM on 08/17/07
I started grilling pizza this year, and one of my combos uses pesto on it. You can use cheese, or not, or you can just throw some veggies on top with chicken.
Mich23 at 5:39PM on 08/17/07
Use as a replacement for butter in anything-spread it on toast, a grilled cheese sandwich, put 'er in a baked potato, a personal favorite for sun-dried tomato pesto is to spread it on some corn with parmesan and roast.
Other options are a great spread for asparagus, salad dressing (mix with some oil), a dollop on soup, or mixed with all the cheese chunks in your fridge and a little butter for the most amazing tortellini filling you've ever had.
michichan at 5:47PM on 08/17/07
I sometimes have it as a snack on crackers with cream cheese. Or put it under the skin of chicken thighs or breasts and bake them.
laura dot at 6:58PM on 08/17/07
Oh, my, what a timely post, because just last night I made the best dish with pesto. I bought a HUGE bunch of basil on Sunday, put it in water (changing it every day--well, almost) as somebody suggested here, and have been picking at it since. Yesterday, I saw that it was going... So I made pesto (2+ cups packed basil leaves 3+ tb toasted pinenuts, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 garlic cloves).
Came up with this:
Shrimp Pesto Pasta
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons homemade pesto, or more
1 pound peeled deveined shrimp
lemon zest
2 to 4 tablespoons cream
3/4 pound linguine or fettucine, cooked
lemons for squirting
Sauté the onion in olive oil until softened. Add the pesto and some of the pasta water. Add the lemon zest. Add the shrimp, cover and cook until the shrimp is not quite done. Add the cooked pasta and some more of the pasta water. Toss, adding the cream. Serve with lots of lemon wedges for squirting. Serves 3. Or maybe 4.
Wonderful.
D.
Dee at 8:50PM on 08/17/07
I'm a basil nutter so I can eat pesto out of a bowl with a spoon, but I have some friends that love my proscuitto rolls, so instead of using just shredded basil I added pesto instead and the increase in flavor was outstanding! I also sometimes use a combonation of basil and fresh parsley instead of just basil. kinda lightens the flavors but works well with fish especially.
huney_bumper at 10:12AM on 08/18/07
I spread it on zuchinni, eggplant and chicken breasts and grill them. OMG so good. Once you have it you will never want to not have it.
JerzeeTomato at 1:34AM on 08/19/07
Thanks everyone! Dee, your recipe sounds delicious!
My parents are on their way down for a visit and guess what they're bringing from the Farmer's Market? Basil! Yay! Pesto all the way around.
Thanks again!
hereandthe at 10:27AM on 08/19/07
I like to put it on top of potato pancakes.
reginalibintia at 4:59PM on 08/19/07
I'm with cohaagen -- cheese in pesto just doesn't ring my bell. It masks the fresh leafy flavor that makes summer basil so good. I like my cheese-free pesto on roasted vegetables, salmon, and stirred into a salad of corn, tomato, and arugula.
Another bonus of skipping the cheese: the pesto freezes much better.
butterface at 12:59AM on 08/20/07
Add a spoonful to soups.
Another favorite is to fry up some eggs and once the whites have set a little bit, spoon some pesto and top and let it finish cooking. Then serve eggs on top of cream cheese topped bagel halves or toast. Yum!
ceforrester at 10:39AM on 08/20/07
A friend of mine made an amazing chickpea pesto. We spread it all over little bite-sized pieces of bread, topped them with half a cherry tomato, and spread goat cheese onto the top of that. It was delicious (and so was her chickpea pesto :) )
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 5:00PM on 08/22/07
Chickpea pesto? Can I have the recipe?
KitchenHawk at 9:11PM on 10/09/07