PESTO FESTO, by Joanne

Pesto Festo Contest & Party, Fri. 12 July, 5:30-7:00, by Joanne

SAVE THE DATE!!!!  Friday July 12th, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm.  Music by PRINCE (country and R & R)!

Joanne

Hi all you Red Hill Farm chefs!  Start perusing those cook books, or refining your favorite pesto recipe to enter into the contest. Be creative--e.g., try a non-basil pesto!

Prizes will be awarded for the most creative and best-tasting.  Bring your favorite beverage or snack to complement the various pesto contest entries.

See the post above, "Pesto Ideas," for some unusual types of pesto, as well as for the history of this wonderful sauce of ground herbs and other ingredients.

Pesto with Green Beans & Potatoes, by Melinda

Trenette al Pesto with green beans and potatoes (source)

Trenette al Pesto (Trenette or Linguine with Pesto, Green Beans, and Potatoes--This is a traditional Italian pesto sauce over a mix of pasta, green beans, and potatoes. Trenette is a regional pasta but you can use linguine or fettucine instead.

• 3 cups packed basil
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 tbsp finely grated parmesan
• 2 tbsp finely grated pecorino
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• kosher salt & fresh-ground black pepper to taste
• 1 lb trenette or linguine pasta
• kosher salt to taste
• 8 oz. green beans, trimmed 
• 8 oz. baby red potatoes (or other small potatoes), roasted & halved

Make the pesto:  process basil, oil, cheeses, nuts, & garlic in a food processor until finely ground. Season w/ salt/pepper & set aside.  Bring 6-qt. saucepan of salted water to boil on high heat; add pasta & cook, stirring, till half-cooked, ~5min. Add green beans & cook, stirring, till pasta is al dente and veggies are tender, ~3 min. longer. Drain pasta & veggies, reserving 1/4 cup cooking water, & transfer to large bowl along w/ potatoes and pesto; toss to combine, adding a couple tbsp of reserved cooking water, if needed, to make a smooth sauce.  MMMWAH!!!!

"Pretty-Much-Anything" Pesto, by Melinda

I've discovered over my years as an RHF member that sometimes you can't get through all our wonderful greens while they're still crispy fresh, especially if you're also growing greens at home or you don't have a large family.  So to use the greens while they still have all their nutritive value, I discovered that lots of them--and I mean HUGE quantities--actually can be processed down to much smaller amounts by using them as the basis for pesto. This also allows you to keep them (in  compact, frozen form) into the depths of winter--it's so great to crack out a truly summery pesto sauce for dinner while the winds and snow are howling outside!

Dino (or Lacinato) kale

Here's one I made in the food processor last week, using all of the kale (removing only the toughest stems), the spinach, and the garlic scapes--everything left in its raw state.

• 1 large bunch of kale, stems removed if desired
• 1 bunch of spinach
• several cloves of garlic, or to taste
• 8 to 10 garlic scapes
• a sufficient amount of olive oil to get the food processor to do its work
• about 1/4 to 1/2 cup pecorino romano or parmesan cheese (vegans can use a vegan parmesan substitute or just leave out the cheese altogether)
• about 1/2 to 3/4 cup nuts (walnuts are good for their hearty flavor, but almonds, cashews, pine nuts, etc., work just as well)
• several tbsp dried chopped basil OR a handful of fresh basil (or to taste)
• about 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste

Add all your greens to the food processor bowl (do in several batches if necessary) and add enough oil to get it to start chopping down the greens. You'll be astounded at how "small" all those huge greens become!  Gradually add the other ingredients to your processor bowl, each time incorporating them with what's already in there, scraping down the sides of the bowl and adding a bit more oil as necessary.  Process until it's as smooth as you like. It's ready, then, to use or freeze.

Other veggies or greens that can be incorporated into your pesto include beet greens, radish greens, turnip greens, scallions, dandelion greens, foraged greens like purslane, lightly steamed chopped kohlrabi or carrots (their nutrients are more available if lightly cooked), and so forth. Be imaginative! Be creative!

Winter Market, Part III: Saturday, December 29th, 2012

The goddess Persephone

This is it, the last Winter Market of 2012, yet with many more to follow in 2013.  We are just so amazingly blessed to have the freshest, most local, totally organic produce possible!  Many thanks to Devorah for the great job she's doing.  And all in the middle of winter, during the so-called "Persephone period," when plants normally are dormant or dead (see here for Devorah's earlier comments on the Persephone period).  Persephone, the ancient goddess of fertility, was abducted by Hades because she was so beautiful; her mother Demeter bargained to get her back, but the bargain involved Persephone returning to the Underworld for three months each year.  That was the ancient Greek explanation for the vegetatively barren winter months.

What we expect to offer in our little "Persephone work-around" hoophouse on the 29th is arugula, carrots, radishes, kale, chard, scallions, cilantro, parsley, lettuce mix, and--just maybe--our first little bit of broccoli!  There are so many wonderful dishes to make with what we have, and some of the recipes can become the basis of 5 or 6 different meals.

Melinda's Winter-Greens and Basil Pesto Sauce--this is truly a laissez-faire recipe. Feel free to substitute ingredients, change amounts to suit your taste, and so forth.

• 2 to 4 bunches of winter greens of your choice--chard, any sort of kale, bok choi, arugula, radish greens, turnip greens, spinach, dandelion greens, chickweed--and you can use a LOT, because it all becomes much smaller once you pulse it in a food processor (my last batch, which made enough for several pasta meals, included 2 bunches of kale, 1 bunch of radish greens [which are a little spicy], and a bunch of turnip greens)
• scallions, if you like, roots removed
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 or more large garlic cloves, peeled (I use a whole small head, but I'm a garlic freak!)
• about a cup of nuts of your choice--walnuts, cashews, pine nuts, almonds--or more to taste
• about a cup of olive oil; more if needed
• about a cup of pecorino or parmesan cheese (or vegan substitute), or more/less to taste
• 1 tsp salt (or more/less to taste)



(Photo credit)

• about a half cup dried basil--start with that amount, then add more if you think it's needed

Remove tough stems from kale & discard; if you use chard or bok choi, trim and chop the stems into ~1/2-in. chunks. Start with one bunch of greens, add part of the olive oil and the lemon juice. Whiz in food processor till smooth. Repeat with any other greens you're using, including chopped chard or bok choi stems; for scallions, first chop into ~2-in. lengths, then add. Whiz again till smooth, scraping down sides periodically. (If you want a less caloric pesto, you can substitute plain yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese--or even broth or soy milk--for some of the olive oil, though of course these will alter the flavor of the finished pesto.) Add 1/2 cup dried basil, nuts, garlic, & salt and whiz again. Start adding cheese a quarter cup at a time & taste; keep adding till it suits you! If you think the pesto is too thick, add more oil. Put pesto into jars or zip-type plastic bags and refrigerate or freeze. The flavor develops further as the pesto is stored.

The pesto can be used classically on pasta (adding beans is nice too). Or you can coat roasted or grilled lamb chops or beef steaks with pesto and rewarm them in the oven before serving. Or you can start with a whole chicken, gently loosen the skin with your hands (while nevertheless not removing it), and rub the meat under the skin with pesto sauce (rubbing the interior with lemon juice is nice too); then roast the chicken till done. Pesto sauce can also be mixed into minestrone; it can be used on hoagies or grilled cheese sandwiches or vegetarian wraps. Whatever you do, have fun & eat well!