Bright green!

Apparently you all love Anne Burrell! Who knew? She rocked the poll last week with her book Cook Like a Rock Star.

As I mentioned in my review of this book many months ago, I really love the book in theory. The problem comes when you actually want to cook from it. A lot of the recipes require pretty rare and/or expensive ingredients.

So I tried to pick a recipe that would be accessible to people.

The pasta recipes called out to me. She really knows her pasta and while she pretty much always recommends making fresh pasta, a lot of the recipes can be easily adapted to use dried pasta.

This recipe caught my eye this week so I went for it. It turned out to be really interesting and delicious.

Arugula Walnut Pesto

Yield: Enough for 1 pound of pasta.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
3 cups baby arugula
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup Pecorino cheese, grated
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup hot pasta water
1/2 cup heavy cream
Kosher salt
Big fat finishing oil

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor

Directions:

1) Lay out walnuts on a sheet pan and roast them for about 6 minutes at 350 degrees. Watch them closely and turn them once half way through.

2) Combine walnuts, arugula, cheeses, and garlic in a food processor and pulse until it's a rough paste.

3) Drizzle in olive oil and pulse again.

4) Add pesto to a small pan and add about 1 cup of hot pasta water to the pan. Stir well.

5) Bring to a simmer, stir in cream, and continue to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

6) When pasta is done, drain it and add it straight to the pesto.

7) Serve with a drizzle of finishing oil and extra grated cheese.

Recipe from Cook Like a Rock Star.

The Basics

A normal pesto recipe is based on buckets of basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and pine nuts. A lot of times I won’t even follow a recipe for it. I’ll just kind of wing it with those ingredients.

This is a very similar recipe in theory but substitutes arugula for the basil and walnuts for the pine nuts.

Speaking of nuts, I’m pretty sure Anne Burrell is one. Under this recipe in her book she writes in big bold type:

“I love the feel of nuts in my mouth!”

Ok Anne. I don’t really know what to think about that so here’s a photo of some nuts just so we can make sure we are on the same page.

Love these!

Anne recommends, and I agree, that you toast these bad boys before using them. Just lay them out on a baking sheet and bake them at 350 degrees for about 6-7 minutes.

I recommend setting a timer and watching them closely because these will go from perfect to burnt in about 30 seconds.

Making the Pesto

Arugula is no where near as flavorful as basil so you really need to use a lot of it for this recipe. Don’t worry about over-doing it.

No basil needed.

Once your walnuts are toasted, add them to a food processor with a good amount of arugula, grated cheese, and some minced garlic and you’re ready to go!

Ready to blend!

Pulse this down until it’s a rough paste and then drizzle in your olive oil and continue to pulse.

Perfect paste.

Finishing the Pesto

The key to finishing this pesto, which is now way to dry to really use, is to make a sauce out of it.

To do this, add the paste to a medium saucepan and get it cooking over medium heat. Then add about a cup of hot water from the pasta that you’re cooking straight to the pot!

This water will be salty and starchy and really help make this pesto into something useable.

Magic ingredient.

Once you get the pasta water stirred in, go ahead and add some cream and your sauce will really come alive.

The color of this is amazing!

Love the color.

Put this back on the heat and keep it warm until your pasta is done.

The Pasta

Anne’s big on homemade pasta and so am I. I kind of think of homemade pasta as a special occasion thing though and not an every night situation.

So I just used some dried linguine and it worked great.

Homemade pasta would be best...

Big Fat Finishing Oil

In about 25% of the recipes in this cookbook, Anne recommends finishing the dish with what she called a “Big Fat Finishing Oil.” What she means by this is a really good quality olive oil (read: expensive).

You would never actually cook with this stuff because the heat would immediately break down the flavors. You just drizzle it on right before you serve the dish.

I’m not an olive oil expert, but I picked out a nice bottle that definitely tasted a lot fresher than the stuff I use to cook. It worked great to finish the dish.

Big Fat Finishing Oil?

Once the pasta is drained just stir it into the sauce and then serve it up!

Extra grated cheese and a good drizzle of the nice oil rounds out the pasta perfectly.

Really tasty!

I’m was really surprised by the flavors in this pesto. They were very different from normal pesto.

It was a great change and Betsy and I both gave it two big fat finishing thumbs up!

Potatoes are my favorite.

I was a bit shocked that fingerling potatoes won the poll last week. It was a very close race though. Tomatillo salsa took a very close second and I might just make it anyway since it’s what I wanted to win.

I wasn’t so impressed by this recipe when I read it. I mean you just roast some potatoes, spin some chives in a food processor and you’re done.

I was skeptical.

But I can tell you this. Betsy went back for seconds. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but trust me. It is. She’s not really a “seconds” person. She’ll usually save dishes for leftovers the next day, but will very rarely hit up the same dish right away.

Not the case here. As soon as she finished serving one she said, “I need more of those potatoes.” I was right behind her!

Roasted Fingerlings with Chive Pesto

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds fingerling potatoes (that's the size of bag they normally come in)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Big pinch of salt and pepper

Chive Pesto:
1/2 Cup fresh chives
1/2 Cup fresh flat leaf parsley
2 Tablespoons almonds or pine nuts
1 large garlic clove
1/2 Cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
Food processor (mini one works well also)

Directions:

1) Slice potatoes in half and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.

2) Lay potatoes out onto a baking sheet in an even layer.

3) Bake potatoes at 425 degrees for 35-40 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so.

4) Meanwhile, add all pesto ingredients except olive oil and lemon juice to a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.

5) Drizzle in olive oil and continue to pulse until it's a coarse paste.

6) Stir in lemon juice and set aside.

7) When potatoes come out of the oven, add to a bowl and toss with a few tablespoons of pesto.

8) Serve with extra pesto on the side!

Roasting the Fingerlings

If you aren’t familiar with fingerlings, they are just a varietal of potato that seems to be very popular these days. They are long and skinny and really perfect for roasting. They cook quicker than normal potatoes and get really nice and crispy since they have more surface area.

They are more common in the Fall actually, but are pretty much available throughout the year.

To prep the potatoes, just slice them down the middle and toss them with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

Oil. Salt. Pepper. Done.

Lay these out on a baking sheet and bake them at 425 degrees for about 35 minutes. Give them a turn every 10 minutes to make sure they are cooking evenly.

Chive Pesto

Normally pesto uses basil, but chives work equally well. This is the first time I’ve made a chive pesto, but it won’t be the last. The flavors were really good.

Seriously Chivin'

Once you have all your ingredients, add everything but the lemon juice to a food processor and pulse them a few times. Then drizzle in the olive oil and continue to process until the pesto is a coarse paste.

Once you’re done processing the pesto, stir in the lemon juice and you’re all set.

This still will smell bright and fresh.

All mixed up.

Finishing the Dish

When the potatoes come out of the oven the should be really nicely browned all over. Honestly, these are good just like this!

Perfect!

Transfer the potatoes to a large bowl and toss them with about two tablespoons of the pesto. You’ll probably want to add more, but its’ a good idea to start light with the pesto.

People can always add more later.

Go light to start.

Serve these up in a nice big bowl!

Here’s a good close up shot. Man these hit the spot!

So good.

These were very crispy and delicious and the chive pesto was very light and tasty.

I’ll be honest, Betsy and I almost finished off a pound and a half of these by ourselves!

Awesome for lunches

I’m constantly on a quest to find good lunch dishes that are something different than the classic sandwich. It’s a tough deal because you want something flavorful and tasty, but it also needs to be filling and healthy.

If I don’t have a filling lunch, I find myself snacking on the chips at about 4PM. Ok. I sometimes snack no matter what, but it’s especially bad if I skip a hearty lunch.

Quinoa has been the perfect base for my lunch salad experiments. It has a good amount of protein and fiber which will keep you full. It also has a great texture and can be thrown in with a huge list of other tasty ingredients.

In short, quinoa is my salad king.

Pesto Quinoa Salad

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

8 ounces quinoa, cooked
1 small red onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 orange or green pepper, diced
1 cucumber, seeded, peeled and diced
1 Cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 large beet, roasted and diced (opt.)
1/3 Cup parsley, chopped

Basic Pesto:
Makes about 1 1/2 cups pesto
2 Cups basil
2 cloves garlic
1/3 Cup pine nuts
1/2 Cup olive oil
1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor for pesto

Directions:

1) Combine pesto ingredients in a processor and pulse until combined.

2) Cook quinoa according to package and set aside.

3) While quinoa cooks, chop all your veggies and roast your beet (350 for about an hour) if you're using beets.

4) Combine veggies with quinoa. Crumble in feta. Toss with pesto.

5) The salad is best if you let it chill before serving.

Making the Pesto

I make pesto all the time and I love playing around with the flavors. A bit more garlic or pine nuts can really change the flavor of it and make it very different. If you’re making it, don’t stress about the exact amounts. Just taste it as you go and adjust.

It takes just a minute or two to toss all the ingredients into a processor and pulse it together. When I make pesto, I normally make a double or triple batch and then freeze some pesto for later.

If you’re in a super-rush, you can use jarred pesto without a problem also.

Pesto is so easy.

The Quinoa

Cooking quinoa is like cooking a strange mix between oatmeal and beans. Basically, I just always follow the instructions on the package and it ends up being great.

It’s a really flexible grain so if, while you’re cooking it, you notice that yours is a bit dry, feel free to add more water. One time I added way too much water and just strained my quinoa through a strainer when it was done and that worked great also.

So, basically, it’s pretty hard to screw up.

Love this stuff.

Cooking it takes maybe 15-20 minutes. It’s not too bad.

If you have leftovers, this stuff freezes great actually. Just cool it down completely and then seal it in a freezer bag. Try to get out as much air as possible and it’ll keep in your freezer for a few months. Then you can just thaw it in the microwave (low power) when needed.

Nice and fluffy.

Chopping Practice

It’s okay that the quinoa takes a few minutes to cook because you’ll have a lot of chopping to do to finish off the salad.

The veggies I used in the salad are just a suggestion. I would definitely keep the onion, feta and chickpeas though. Those are really nice flavor additions.

Mix and match to your liking

Try to dice up all your ingredients so they are roughly the same size. The onions should maybe be a bit smaller.

Unless you’re an expert chopper, this will take a few minutes, but it’s worth it because you’re getting meals for days out of it.

Chopping skillz.

The Beet!

I had a spare beet sitting around so I roasted it up and included it in the salad. This is very optional. The beet added some nice sweetness to the dish which I liked but it also had the unfortunate side effect of turning the salad a kind of purple color!

If you’ve never roasted a beet before, just toss it on a baking sheet and roast it at 350 until it’s very tender, about an hour normally.

Let it cool a bit and then you can peel it and dice it up.

Love this.

Combining everything

A salad like this is very flexible. Start by adding your quinoa to the veggies that you’ve chopped and then add enough pesto to lightly coat the salad. You should need about 1 to 1 1/2 Cups of pesto, but feel free to use more or less depending on your tastes.

I stirred in my beet last to try to minimize the color burn, but it still turned stuff pretty red.

A slight change in color...

My final salad wasn’t quite as appealing as the nice green salad in the first photo, but it tasted better in my opinion. I loved the beet addition.

So let the record state that pesto plus quinoa plus a bunch of random veggies makes for a really good lunch!

Mint is one of my favorite spring flavors. It has such a distinct flavor that even a tiny bit of it can easily be tasted in a dish. Mint doesn’t hide well. That’s why I was really intrigued when I saw a mint pesto. It doesn’t use mint as an accent. The dish is pretty much all mint.

Honestly, I wanted to try this because I thought it’d be interesting, but I was 100% ready to report that the mint was very over-powering. That’s what I assumed would happen. Shows how much I know. Mint pesto worked just perfectly.

Very flavorful!

What’s funny about this pesto is that if you just taste a single sprig of mint, the flavor is intense, but when you grind down a lot of them, they lose some of that intensity and mixed with the other ingredients it just becomes a really delicious, light pesto.

Mint Pesto

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups loosely packed fresh mint
1/2 Cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
2 Tablespoons pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
1/3 Cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 Cup olive oil (maybe a bit more)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor. You obviously don't need a huge one to make this, but if you're in the market for one, might as well get a large one in my opinion.

Directions:

1) Wash the mint and parsley well. Toast the pine nuts for a few minutes in a dry pan.

2) Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until they resemble a coarse paste.

3) Taste the pesto and adjust the flavors. It might need a bit more oil or salt and pepper.

4) Toss pesto with hot pasta and serve with extra Parmesan cheese.

Adapted from Body & Soul Magazine.

Making Pesto

This pesto is just like any other. It’s not rocket science. The only note is to make sure your mint leaves are well-washed. They have a tendency to accumulate tiny dirt bits on the leaves. When you buy your mint by the bunch, it’ll come with stems obviously. When you make the pesto try to get mostly leaves but you don’t have to be crazy about it. A few stems won’t mess up the situation.

Lots of mint...

Now you can use a lot of different tools to make pesto. The traditional way to do it is to use a mortar and pestle or even just a large knife which you keep working over the basil (mint in this case) until it’s a coarse paste.

For this version, I just whipped out my new food processor. Have I mentioned that getting married rocks?!

Kitchen Gadget of the Century.

Of all the gadgets I’ve received as wedding gifts, I think I’ve used this one the most so far. It’s so simple to use. Besides pestos, I’ve started making hummus every week which is really awesome and I’ve used it for a few different dips also. Basically, I’m in love.

For this pesto, it’s as easy as throwing all the stuff in the processor…

A good start...

And pulsing it a few times until it’s a coarse paste. You don’t want to over-process it.

I love my processor so much.

Taste Testing

This really goes for any dish, but I think tasting is essential for pestos. Based on your ingredients, you’ll need to adjust some things. Feel free to add a bit more olive oil if the pesto is too dry or more salt and pepper if needed. Try to identify what flavors the ingredients are contributing to the pesto and then adjust for those flavors if you need to.

Once you get it just right, you can mix it right in to your pasta. Make sure your pasta is really hot and freshly cooked. That’ll help the pesto flavors meld into the pasta.

Together at last!

Mix it all up and you’re good to go! I used a whole wheat penne pasta for this dish, but you could use your favorite obviously.

Man this smells good.

If I were to re-make this dish (and I just might!), I think I’d add some fresh spring peas to the dish. Peas and mint work really well together and it would add one more great flavor to this pasta dish.

Ok. So peas would've been a good idea.

As is though, I just grated some extra Parm on the pasta (because why not) and it was a great dinner. Turns out this dish is also great the next day. The pesto, as pesto has a tendency to do, got even better as the flavors blended a bit.

It was kind of surprising to me how good this was, but if you are used to a basil pesto, this isn’t that much of a step away but it’s a great alternative.

Second, once I buy them, they always go bad before I can use all of them! I’ve tried freezing them and drying them and all of that is fine, but I always find myself wanting fresh herbs a week later so I just buy more. It’s a sick cycle.

The one herb that is definitely an exception to this rule is basil. When I find it on sale, I buy as much of it as possible. Take this box of basil that Whole Foods had on sale a few weeks ago.

I'm a sucker for basil sales.

Now that is a lot of basil! It’s about 4 ounces to be exact. Total cost: $5. Keep in mind that mere feet from where I found this box of basil, you could purchase the very tiny 3/4 ounce of basil for $4. You can do the math people. I’m buying the big box!

Once I got home, I used the tiny amount I needed for a dish, which I think was chicken parmesan. This left me with about 3.8 ounces of basil left. Also known as still a lot of basil.

So, I decided to make a bunch of pesto out of it and freeze it! The pesto maintains its flavor a lot better when frozen than just the raw basil leaves. I think it might have something to do with the oil keeping it fresh.

Let’s make it!

Basic Pesto

Yield: 1 cup or 8 ice cubes

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

3 Cups basil, washed and dried.
1/4 Cup olive oil (might need a bit more or less)
1/8 Cup pine nuts
1 garlic clove, crushed
Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor (I have the mini version.)

Directions:

1) Place all ingredients in food processor and let it spin for a few seconds until all mixed up (when using the mini processor, you may need to do a few batches).

2) Place pesto into ice cube trays (about 2 Tablespoons per cube).

3) Let these freeze solid overnight.

4) Pop the pesto cubes out and store them in a freezer bag. If you have ice cube trays to spare you can keep your pesto in the tray I guess.

5) You can toss them into any warm dish and once they have melted down, you’ll have a very tasty pesto dinner!

Examples:
Cube up some chicken, brown it in a few tablespoons of olive oil, and then toss in a few cubes of pesto!
Make some pasta and once the chicken is completely cooked through and the pesto melted down and hot, add the pasta to the dish for a super-fast but very flavorful pesto chicken dinner.

Now you could go crazy with this and add roasted red peppers or tons of other things, but I wanted to keep it simple for this version.

Basic stuff for pesto.

Making the pesto

Pesto is pretty straightforward to make. Because I just have a mini food processor, I had to make mine in a few batches. Just try to only add enough olive oil to make the ingredients form a paste. You don’t want it to be too oily.

I had to do a few batches...

Give it a spin for a few seconds and it should be all mixed up. I like to leave my pesto with some texture. I want those little chunks of cheese and pine nuts throughout so I never over-process mine. Just a few pulses will do the trick.

Smells good... trust me.

Freezing the pesto

Once you have all your pesto made you can add it to ice cube trays! Each of these trays is about 2 tablespoons of pesto which is, very conveniently, about one good serving. So if you’re making dinner for two, use two cubes. If you’re making dinner for two plus enough for leftovers the next day (as I always do), use four cubes!

Future deliciousness.

Let these freeze solid. It’s best to just leave them in overnight. Then you can pop the pesto cubes out and store them in a freezer bag. If you have ice cube trays to spare you can keep your pesto in the tray I guess. I wanted to return my try to its ice-making duties so I stored my cubes in a bag once they were frozen.

Artsy shot of the day.

Making Dinner

The advantages of these pesto cubes should be pretty obvious, but you can basically toss them into any warm dish and once they have melted down, you’ll have a very tasty pesto dinner!

For example, one night I cubed up some chicken, browned it in a few tablespoons of olive oil, and then tossed in a few cubes of pesto!

You can add these guys to lots of things.

I also made some pasta and once the chicken was completely cooked through and the pesto melted down and hot, I added the pasta to the dish for a super-fast but very flavorful pesto chicken dinner.

Still tastes great!

So the final score in battle herb usage is something like

Nick: 1, big-box-of-basil: 0, all other herbs: 23259.

But never mind that! The point is that now you can capitalize on that huge box of basil that might be sitting, unloved, in your supermarket!

Also, I linked to this last Friday, but if you’re looking for a creative way to extend your fresh herbs for a few more days (or weeks?), check out the contraption that Jason made over at Well Done Chef.

Do you freeze anything in ice cubes to use later?

Given that there were two food bloggers at the event, the food was pretty solid. For starters, these were the pesto pork chops we grilled up.

Flame licked.

We had quite the menu for this event, especially given that there were only four of us. Course one was margaritas. Nothing like a little tequila to smooth out a Saturday.

Course two was a dish that I learned from my Dad actually: Jalapeno Poppers wrapped in bacon.

Jalapeno Poppers
(For 12 poppers. Enough for 4 healthy guys.)

- 12 jalapenos
- 6 ounces cream cheese
- 2 ounces blue cheese
- 12 strips thick bacon
- Toothpicks, soaked in water

Making the poppers

If you have some rubber gloves you may want to put them on. First, mix your cream cheese and blue cheese together in a bowl. You can just use cream cheese if you want, but I think the blue cheese gives it a nice bite.

THe perfect mix of cheeses.

As far as the jalapenos go, chop off the stem but try to leave as small a hole as possible at the top of the pepper. Then chop them in half horizontally and cut out all the guts. If you want these guys really spicy you could mix the seeds in with your cheese mixture. That’d be kind of crazy, but I’m not against it.

Then stuff as much of the cheese as you can between the two halves of the jalapeno and sandwich them back together. They should be able to close completely.

If you are my father, then you have a drill bit that you use solely for this purpose. He just drills out the center of the pepper so there’s no need to cut them in half. It’s about 10 times as fast, but I don’t have a drill really so I do it this way. Still works great.

KInda messy, but worth it.

The problem obviously is that if we were to throw these guys on the grill like that, the cheese would just melt right out and you would have one big hot mess. Solution: bacon.

Wrap each pepper in a full strip of bacon. Start at the top of the pepper to make sure the top hole is covered and then just wind the bacon around until it is snug around the pepper. Then secure the whole thing with a toothpick. Make sure to soak your toothpicks in water before you do this or they will just burn off really fast on the grill.

As the bacon cooks, it contracts and keeps the pepper nice and tight so very little cheese will escape as it melts. I know it sounds crazy but it works!

Ready for the heat!

These guys need to cook until the bacon is nice and crispy. Probably 10-15 minutes on the grill. Turn them every few minutes. The first time you make them you may lose one or two, but don’t worry about it. You’ll get good at it quickly.

Warning. This will smell delicious.

The final result is crispy bacon wrapped around a roasted pepper that still has a tiny bit of crispiness to it. Inside is an awesome cheese mixture.

I think I could eat a dozen of these by myself, but usually 2 or 3 is enough to do the trick.

Tightly wrapped!

Rex cut up a bunch of nice veggies and marinated them. You can find his recipe on his post, but here is some grill porn for ya.

Veg city.

Pesto Pork Chops

There is a farmer’s market around the corner from my house and it gets bigger every weekend. My favorite stand so far is one that sells all kinds of pork products. They have amazing bacon (used theirs for the poppers above) and also pork chops.

Rex had lots of fresh basil growing in his backyard so we decided to mix up some pesto to marinate these guys in.

Basic Pesto

- 1 1/2 Cups fresh basil
- 1/4 Cup pine nuts
- 3-5 cloves garlic (ok. Five.)
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil
- Salt and pepper

Just mix up all those things in a food processor or blender and then pour the pesto over your chops in a plastic bag. Let these marinate for an hour or two at least.

Flavor packed.

Literally, as we were walking out to the grill it started to monsoon rain. Luckily, Rex is prepared for any situation. He has a full tent that was quick to set up that completely covers his patio – grill and chairs. Awesome.

While we were cooking the veggies above, there were some serious flare-ups on the grill and it would create these huge plumes of smoke which would get trapped in the tent. I stepped back from the tent and snapped this photo while Rex was manning the grill.

Hunting the hunter.

Cook the pork chops on pretty high heat for 5-7 minutes a side depending on thickness. You want to make sure they have a good char on them.

I don't have to tell you that these were good.

So there are a few recipes here that maybe you can use the next time you are looking for something to grill.

Good times.

And so I settled on this awesome shrimp pizza with a red pepper pesto sauce.

Spicy shrimp pizza!

I went with a thin crust for the pizza. It just seemed like a crispy thin crust was the best way to go. The original recipe actually said to buy store bought stuff, but you can probably guess how I feel about that.

I actually keep a few balls of pizza dough frozen that way I just have to pull them out a few hours before (like 5) and let it thaw slowly. Then it is just like fresh.

Shrimp and Red Pepper Pesto Pizza

Yield: 1 large pizza.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes + time for dough

Ingredients:

1/2 pound large (16-20 count) shrimp, peeled, deveined, and halfed
1 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flake
1/4 medium onion, cut into thin strips
1/4 red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
2 Cups low-moisture mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil (I left this off because I didn't have any. It was fine.)
2/3 Cup red pepper pesto

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto (Makes about 2 cups)
Clove garlic
1 jar (16 ounces) roasted red peppers
3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 Tablespoon fresh basil
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon sugar
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes

Helpful Equipment:
Pizza stone and peel

Directions:

1) If you purchased nice whole shrimp, take your time to shell them entirely and cut them in half head to tail. Also remove the black vein near the back of the shrimp if there is one.

2) Toss the shrimp in a bowl with the garlic, pepper flakes, olive oil, and lemon juice. Let this marinate for 10 minutes or so.

3) Throw all the roasted red pepper pesto ingredients in a food processor and give it a pulse until it is sauce.

4) Chop up the onions and red pepper. Try to get them pretty uniformly sliced.

5) Check out this post on how to make the pizza crust.

6) You should preheat the oven to about 500 degrees and if you are heating up a pizza stone, make sure you give it at least 30 minutes to get the stone as hot as possible.

7) Roll out the dough and slap it on a lightly corn mealed pizza peel. You can also use the back of a sheet pan if you don’t have a peel.

8) Add an even layer of the red pepper pesto and then top it with the onions and fresh red peppers.

9) Pile on the cheese and finally those shrimpies. Try to keep the shrimp in one layer or they might not cook all the way through. You can pile them on though as long as they don’t overlap. They will shrink up when they are cooked.

10) Cook about 12-14 minutes in a 500 degree oven and the shrimp should be cooked perfectly, the cheese melted, and the crust super crunchy and delicious.

Adapted from Pizza!

Prepping the Shrimp

If you purchased nice whole shrimp, take your time to shell them entirely and cut them in half head to tail. Also remove the black vein near the back of the shrimp if there is one.

Then toss your shrimp in a bowl with the garlic, pepper flakes, olive oil, and lemon juice. Let this marinate for 10 minutes or so.

A garlic marinade is one of my favorite things.

Red Pepper Pesto

The pesto is actually really simple. Just throw all your ingredients in a food processor and give it a pulse until it is sauce. It’s okay if it has some lumps.

The original recipe said to not use the oil in the jar, but then the recipe called for added oil. I thought I would try just pouring in the entire contents of the jar and skipping the extra oil. That worked like a charm.

This is good stuff.

Besides the pesto, chop up the onions and red pepper. Try to get them pretty uniformly sliced.

Pretty simple toppings really.

The dough

I’m not going to go into the exact specifics of making pizza dough in this post. You can check out a really detailed explanation on this post. I actually made the dough I’m using for this recipe a few weeks before and just froze it in a bag with a bit of olive oil drizzled inside.

You should preheat your oven to about 500 degrees and if you are heating up a pizza stone, make sure you give it at least 30 minutes to get the stone as hot as possible.

Then roll out your dough and slap it on a lightly corn mealed pizza peel. You can also use the back of a sheet pan if you don’t have a peel.

If at all possible, it's always worth it to make it.

Add an even layer of your red pepper pesto and then top it with the onions and fresh red peppers.

This sauce is maybe the best part of the pizza.

Next pile on your cheese and finally those shrimpies. Try to keep the shrimp in one layer or they might not cook all the way through. You can pile them on though as long as they don’t overlap. They will shrink up when they are cooked.

Nice shrimpies.

About 12-14 minutes in a 500 degree oven and your shrimp should be cooked perfectly, your cheese melted, and your crust super crunchy and delicious.

I could barely wait to eat it.

Honestly, I had never really made a seafood pizza before, but it worked really well. I ate about half of this pizza for dinner one night and took the other half for lunch the next day.

As with most pizzas, it’s possible that this one was better cold.

This was pretty good cold the next day also.

If you are looking for a spicy and interesting pizza to try, definitely give this one a go.

Be sure to check back tomorrow also to vote on a new dish for next week!

Cinnamon roll... Not!

I call it the savory roll. It is a brioche dough which is rolled around pork sausage, pesto sauce, and mozzarella. Oh and there is gravy obviously. This dish was a little bit of work, but my goodness was it delicious. Betsy and I ate them for an entire week and we never got sick of them. Let’s make them.

Step one is making the dough, which you need to start at least the day before, but could do a few days before whenever you have time.

Brioche Dough (from “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes“) I would use this exact same dough to make cinnamon rolls.

- 3/4 Cups warm water
- 3/4 Tablespoon yeast (3/4 packets)
- 2 Teaspoons salt
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1/4 Cup honey
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
- 3 3/4 Cups all-purpose flour

Combine every ingredient except flour and mix well. Then mix in the flour. The dough will be very moist – gooey even. Let this dough sit and rise at room temperature for 2 hours and then into the fridge for at least a few hours, but ideally overnight. You will not be able to use this dough unless it is cold.

Dough. No kneading necessary.

One more thing you can do the night before is make the pesto. You can, of course, make this the day of also.

An confession: I don’t have a set recipe for pesto. Everytime I make it, it is a bit different. It usually involves a handful or two of basil leaves, a Tablespoon or two of pine nuts, a clove of garlic, salt and pepper, and enough olive oil to bring it all together into a pesto like paste.

Quick pesto is easy.

The morning of you are going to need to make the pork filling. You could, of course, use beef or turkey but I really think pork gives it a nice flavor. I started with a little over a pound. I also added about 1/2 of a chopped onion, some chopped fresh sage, and salt and pepper. I added the sage just because I had it. You could also add dry spices like tarragon, basil, oregano, etc.

When you are done with the pork, don’t wash this pan. We are going use the drippings for gravy.

This will produce the smell of breakfast.

Take your dough out of the fridge and on a well floured surface roll it into a long rectangle. As you can see, mine was probably 20 inches by 16 inches.

A pretty big rectangle.

Then layer on your toppings. Put down all of your pesto, then your ground pork, and finally your cheese.

Go crazy.

Rolling this thing is a bit of a trick. Roll it from left to right or right to left, whatever is easiest for you. If your dough is sticking to the table, go slowly, and use a dough scraper or butter knife to release the dough from the table.

A bit tricky. Go slow. Patience is a virtue.

Eventually, you will end up, hopefully, with a tube of rolled awesomeness. Cut this with a serrated knife into eight even sections.

Eight is a good number.

Turn these guys upright in a buttered dish and let them rise for about an hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375.

Awesome.

These guys need to bake for a long time. About an hour. I baked mine for 45 minutes and the outer buns were done, but the interior ones were still a bit soggy in the middle.

While those are cooking, let’s talk gravy. You should have a decent amount of fat left over from the pork and probably even some leftover ground pork. Get all of that in your pan and put it on medium heat. One tablespoon at a time you want to add flour in an equal proportion of fat.

It doesn’t have to be exact. I guessed that I had about 5 Tablespoons of fat from the pork, so I added 5 Tablespoons flour. Stir this together and the flour will start to cook slowly and brown. This, my friends, is a roux.

After about 5 minutes, you will end up with this:

A dark roux.

Then, very slowly, whisk in about 2 cups of milk. There will be steam. Whisk furiously. Try to whisk out any clumps that form. I added about 1/4 of a cup at a time and eventually ended up with this lovely, creamy gravy. Salt and pepper to taste.

Gravy is my favorite thing in the world. Officially.

After an hour, pull out those buns. They will look like, well, breakfast perfection.

After a long bake.

Serve up one of these and ladle plenty of gravy over the top.

Yes.

This is some of the best breakfast I can imagine. The roll is flaky and light and a bit sweet. It holds up nicely though to the spiced pork and pesto. The cheese holds everything together and the gravy is well, gravy.

This is real comfort food in my opinion.

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This was heavenly.

This sandwich is not terribly hard. I guess the hardest part is making the pesto. You could totally buy it if you wanted, but I never think that store bought pesto has quite the kick that homemade can have.

Pesto

- 1/2 cup basil
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil (adjust to your taste/texture)
- 3 cloves garlic
- handful of pecans
- 2 Tablespoons cilantro
= Salt and Pepper

This is pretty cheap pesto for me to make as I usually have some ingredients laying around for a pesto. The only thing I bought for this was the cilantro (we have a small basil plant that keeps us happy in that department). There are tons of pesto substitutions you can use. Instead of pecans try pine nuts. Instead of cilantro, try parsley. Or leave them out.

Don’t stress about it. It will be delicious. I don’t think I’ve ever made the exact same pesto twice.

Add these things to the basil.

Anyway, once you have all of these things, give them a few pulses in your processor. If you don’t have a food processor, I guess you could very finely chop up the ingredients and then stir it together with the olive oil. That would be much more work though obviously.

Very simple. Very delicious.

The second part of this sandwich is the brie. This makes this sandwich a bit expensive, but man is it good. I found an 8 ounce wheel of brie for $6. I was actually planning on using Mozzarella but they were out so I went with this. Either would work I think.

8 ounces of love.

The thing about brie is that it is supposed to be eaten as a spread. It is really soft and kind of awkward to work with. I cut off the rind on my wheel and then tried to slice up the stuff. This amount of cheese made two large sandwiches.

Slicing brie is not the easiest task in the kitchen.

The third ingredient in this equation is the bread. I went with a nice sourdough which was a good choice. It held up perfect to the filling. I think sourdough may be the perfect grilled cheese bread actually because it cooks really evenly and doesn’t burn as quickly as white bread. At the same time, it doesn’t overpower the filling like a rye bread would do.

Butter up one side well on four slices.

This is my bread and butter.

Then flip over each piece and slather on the pesto. You want pesto on the top and the bottom! My fear at this step was that this would be too pesto-y. Nope. It was awesome.

Don't be afraid of the slather technique.

Then I used my pan as a place to build my sandwich. Piled in my brie and put on the top piece.

This pan is not on yet... just using it to assemble.

Cook these guys on medium heat until the brie is melted and the bread is nice and brown.

Holy Pesto.

As with the other two sandwiches I’ve made, I’ll try to rank this guy.

Cheesiness: 8. Brie is just a lovely cheese for a sandwich. It melts quickly and is very gooey and delicious.
Bread: 10. I don’t think I can beat the bread on this sandwich as far as grilled cheese goes. I’m going to keep trying, but this was supreme.
Fillings: 8. Pesto was perfect and flavorful and complimented the cheese well.
Overall: 9. This is going to be a tough sandwich to beat.

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So I now have a regular basil plant, the purple basil plant, and a Thai basil plant (a bit spicy). A three basil pesto was clearly in my future.

The green means good.

As it goes on Thursdays, I’m pretty lazy. I like to use some left over ingredients from other meals. The only thing I had to purchase specifically for this meal was pine nuts (for the pesto). Basically, I just food processed about 2 cups of loosely packed basil, a handful of pine nuts, a clove of garlic, salt/pepper, and some olive oil, until it reached the consistency I wanted: that of pesto.

The bread and cheese I had leftover from my meatball appetizer a few days ago.