Farfelle Pesto with vegetables

A few weeks ago a friend of mine made this delicious meal for her and her family. She had posted a picture on her Facebook and I have been looking at that picture ever since!

That may sound weird but I was trying to think of a way to make this dish so that my husband, the non tomato eating guy, would eat this.

I played around with different ideas and thought up all different possibilities. Really the options are limitless but still changing a recipe before even trying it is difficult, to me!

I did add tomatoes just not as many. The original recipe called for chicken but we ate this Monday so I made mine MEATLESS! but chicken would be good in here!

The Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• Cooking spray
• 20 ounces uncooked farfalle (bow tie pasta)
• 1 tablespoon RAW butter
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 cups 2% low-fat milk, divided
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup pesto (you could be brave and use arugula pesto or you can use regular Fresh Basil)
• 3 bell peppers, chopped (I used tri-color, yellow and red)
• 3 small tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

The Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain in colander over a bowl, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Place pasta in large bowl.

Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic to pan; cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Combine 1/2 cup milk and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add milk mixture to pan, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir in pesto. Gradually add remaining 1 cup milk and half-and-half, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook 8 minutes or until sauce thickens, stirring frequently. Add 1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid, remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 1 cup cheese; stir until cheese melts.

Add sauce to pasta, tossing well to coat. Add tomatoes, vegetables and basil; toss gently.

Arugula Pesto

Arugula was an "extra" item last week with our food share. I love arugula!

Arugula is an excellent source of vitamins A and C, folic acid, calcium, manganese, and
magnesium. It's also a very good source of potassium, iron, zinc, riboflavin, and copper.

Arugula Pesto Recipe

The Ingredients:

2 cups of packed arugula leaves, stems removed

1/2 cup of walnuts

1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves, unpeeled

1/2 garlic clove peeled and minced

THE DIRECTIONS:

Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.

Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown, or heat in a microwave on high heat for a minute or two until you get that roasted flavor. In our microwave it takes 2 minutes.

Food processor method (the fast way): Combine the arugula, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

Mortar and pestle method (photo pictures pesto produced this way): Combine the nuts and garlic in a mortar. With the pestle, grind until smooth. Add the cheese and olive oil, grind again until smooth. Finely chop the arugula and add it to the mortar. Grind up with the other ingredients until smooth.

Because the pesto is so dependent on the individual ingredients, and the strength of the ingredients depends on the season or variety, test it and add more of the ingredients to taste.

Mix with freshly prepared pasta of your choice*. You may need to add a little bit of water or more olive oil to mix the pesto more evenly with the pasta.

Makes enough pesto sauce for an ample serving of pasta for four people.

*Use gluten-free pasta if you are cooking gluten-free.

Pesto Pizza

A friend of mine found a great recipe for pesto pizza on French Bread. Her pictures looked wonderful and she raved so much that I went and made it the next day!

Thank you, friend of mine, for finding this wonderful recipe!!!!

The Ingredients:

2 pints Grape Tomatoes

½ cups Pesto (I used homemade)

1 pound French Bread Loaf, Halved Lengthwise

1-½ cup Mozzarella Cheese

2 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese

The Directions:

Preheat the oven to 420 degrees. Combine the tomatoes and pesto in a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes until tomatoes begin to burst. (Check out the related link for a pesto recipe.)

Then spread the tomato pesto mixture over both sides of the French bread. Then sprinkle the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Then serve the Pesto Pizza

I decided to add a little Italian Seasoning to my pizza.

Fresh Basil Pesto

I love when Fresh Basil in our food share extras box. For several weeks, it might even be safe to say month +, we had free Fresh Basil in the extras box! I made a huge jar of Fresh Basil and it is now stored in my fridge!

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts

3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

The directions

Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Makes 1 cup.

Spinach Spaghetti with Asparagus Pesto

Creative wheels were turning today!!!

Today is Wednesday - FOOD SHARE DAY! :) I am always eager to pick up the vegetables and to think of delicious new ways to prepare them. Each week there is a box of "EXTRA'S." I enjoy looking in the "extra" box because it is filled with herbs! Today I picked up some basil and marjoram. There were fava beans too but after last weeks FLOP, I am not ready to attempt them again.

When I saw the basil, I knew I wanted to try homemade pesto. I had a package of Spinach Spaghetti brown rice noodles. I also got some asparagus and some amazing looking spinach.

Like I said creative wheels were turning!!!

As you can tell I got carried away making the pesto sauce. More for next time!

The Ingredients:

Pesto:

Fresh Basil

3 asparagus spears, broken into pieces

3 cloves of Garlic

1/4 cup RAW cashews ( I didn't have pine nuts on hand)

1 TBSP RAW butter

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Package of spinach spaghetti brown rice noodles

5 asparagus spears

2 giant handfuls of fresh spinach

The Directions:

In a food processor add Basil, Garlic and Asparagus. Pulse until everything is chopped. Add Olive Oil and Salt and Pepper. I did not have enough Olive Oil so I added 1 TBSP RAW butter. Pulse a few times until everything is mix evenly. Finally add the RAW cashews. Pulse again. If you need to add more Olive Oil or Salt and Pepper, do so! Also, I would add some Parmesan cheese but I did not on hand.

Cook spinach spaghetti brown rice noodles according to package directions.

In a sauce pan wilt spinach in a little bit of Olive Oil or RAW butter. Add Asparagus and turn heat to low and cover. Add 2 TBSP of pesto onto the vegetables.

Once the noodles are done, run noodles under cold water. Then add the vegetables and pesto (amount is up to you!) and toss!

Serve!