My Culinary Love Affair (of Convenience)
Posted by Anne
The theme at Life in Pencil this month may be “beginnings”, but lately…it’s all about an ending. Specifically? The end of the winter academic term. Students are coming out of the woodwork, and I’m wrapping up a conference on Friday that I helped organize. It’s safe to say…I’m a little stressed. (I actually had to multi-task during LOST two nights ago, and it’s NOT a show that’s conducive to multi-tasking.)
While it feels good to be crossing items off that Outlook calendar, I don’t care for the harried, frenetic pace of my week. So I’ve been cutting a certain corner in my household routine. And it’s a corner I rarely ever cut…cooking dinner. Not to get all Martha on you, but typically I love cooking every night. But lately it’s been different. It’s a chore. There’s nothing in the fridge. My creative culinary energy is lacking, but I can’t do take-out, and cereal just feels wrong. I need an easy recipe—one that I can whip together, and one that will sustain me for days.
It’s times like these that we need an old stand-by, a never-fail fix, a recipe that serves as a beginning—the raw material for countless easy meals. In my kitchen, it’s a job for that culinary wonder otherwise known as PESTO.
My love affair with pesto began at age 8, on a summer vacation to visit my aunt and uncle in Southern California. It felt totally exotic. There were palm trees! And Walt Disney! Our first night there, my aunt served dinner al fresco on their little Orange County patio, surrounded by bright potted plants and a tidy little fence. This, too, felt very different from our sprawling Midwestern backyard with its messy plum tree and swing-set. That night, I ate pesto pasta with chicken. And I was enamored.
To this day, pesto is what I make when I want a fresh beginning. It reminds me of the start of spring. And even better—one big batch is a “beginning” of its own—it paves the way for pastas, sandwiches, pizza, and appetizers. And it’s adaptable. I’d go so far as to call it a life in pencil food. Don’t have pine nuts? Walnuts work great. Don’t want to spend the $ on fresh basil? Grab the slightly past-its-prime bag of spinach from the fridge. It all works.
Everyone needs an easy recipe—one you can produce in a pinch. We need a simple beginning that reaps many tasty results. Mine is pesto. What’s yours?
*Basic Basil Pesto
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves (SUB: Spinach, arugula)
¼ cup toasted pine nuts (SUB: walnuts)
1 garlic clove
½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
¼ tsp black pepper, plus more to taste
about 2/3 cup olive oil (give or take…depending on the consistency you want)
½ cup parmesan cheese
Whiz everything but the oil together in a food processor or blender. Drizzle in the oil until you get the consistency you want. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.
*Recipe courtesy of….Italy.
(Okay, actually I got this recipe from Giada DeLaurentis—her Everyday Italian cookbook, but really…I’m going to stick with “Italy” as the author on this one.)
Stuff I Make With Pesto (that requires minimal effort):
1. Pasta. Duh. But it’s always a classic, and works hot or cold
2. The turkey pesto sandwich—replace your mayo and mustard with pesto
3. Crackers with roma tomato slices and pesto smeared on top
4. Cherry tomatoes and mozzarella chunks tossed with pesto
5. Salmon filets or chicken breasts with a dollop of pesto on top
Bon appétit!
March 11th, 2010 at 6:24 am
You ate something green and healthy when you were 8 years old? I am wicked impressed!
I love pesto! I also stir it into risotto/rice. So good! I’m in a dinner funk, too. Maybe I just need to make pesto.
March 11th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Yum, pesto! One of my all time faves too. My current dinner-in-a-hurry is a mixed rice blend paired with either red or black beans. Simple but so delicious, especially for a vegetarian like me.
March 11th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Delicious! I love pesto – especially on pasta and as a sandwich spread. Such flavor packed into a little portion. Every summer I look forward to two big milestones from my garden: the first red, ripe tomato and the first batch of homemade basil pesto.
Our quick and easy, too lazy to cook food involves any combination of tortillas, black or refried beans, salsa and sour cream. We always have these on hand – plus lettuce and avocado if we’re lucky – and often fall back on tostadas, taco salad, quesadillas, chimichangas, etc. Yum!
March 11th, 2010 at 9:02 am
I love that you have something you make when you want a fresh start. Sadly, for me, cooking is something I rarely, if ever, do. It’s not something that just falls by the wayside when I am busy. I hope this changes some day!
And when it does, I will whip up a batch of this delicious-sounding pesto. I love pesto!
March 11th, 2010 at 9:25 am
We ate pesto that night? You remember things that have totally slipped my mind.
Anyway, surprisingly, I rarely make pesto, which is a shame. Especially given my current veggie-only status, this would be a good time to rekindle my own pesto love affair. Thanks for the inspiration.
Also, another great pesto trick: if you leave the cheese out you can make it ahead and freeze in baggies. Then thaw out and stir the cheese in when you’re ready to use it!
March 11th, 2010 at 11:03 am
I also make pesto out of swiss chard. I have served that salmon on a bed of linguine tossed in said pesto. My chard plant last year reminded me of zucchini as it kept giving and giving. Still have pesto frozen to use until the next plantings.
March 11th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
We do Pesto here as well. In August we make a ton and then freeze it. My go to recipe when I need to make a bunch of food is to whip up a couple big vats of soup.
March 11th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Per Gale’s advice:
I’ve read that you can freeze pesto in an ice cube tray, and then you have perfect portions that are easy to use. I’ve never tried this, because our pesto is always devoured too fast.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:25 am
I am such a non-cook that I have only one recipe up my sleeve that I can produce with ease and without a cookbook. Chicken divan. To leftover roast chicken add some gravy, lightly steamed broccoli, shredded cheddar cheese, and a squirt of lemon juice. Bake for one hour at 350. Serve with egg noodles and a crisp pinot grigio. Divine!