Experiments in Pesto

Pesto Pizza, Pesto Lamb Chops, and Pesto Cream over Peas

A very green Friday night dinner of totally local and homemade pesto pizza with bacon and tomatoes and raw snap peas. We even had green mint tea to go with! Long live green!

After buying a pound of beautiful basil from our local co-op, I knew immediately I had to make pesto. I was a pesto virgin, and my first try was a decent success! I have, so far, only used half a pound of basil and have more pesto to make today, but with so much beautiful goodness, I had to share how we've used it so far!

To make my pesto, I chose to use walnuts instead of pine nuts, for no reason other than they are less expensive. This is the recipe from Food.com that I used as my base: http://www.food.com/recipe/basil-walnut-pesto-45348. I doubled it and it still turned out yummy.

Pesto Use Recipe #1: Pesto Pizza with Bacon and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 cup pesto

4 ounces (half a small container) of sour cream

2 tablespoons good olive oil

Raw, unbaked Pizza dough, either home made or bought from a bakery, I used a pita bread recipe and added flax seeds:

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/pitabreadrecipe.htm

two cups grated cheese of your choosing-we used raw milk cheddar and paremsan

precooked bacon pieces

1 fat tomato

We cut the pita dough into individual serving sizes when the rise was complete, it turned out they made about 8 little balls. We flattened them out, coated them in some good olive oil, and then in a bowl mixed the sour cream and pesto together.

We used the sour cream and pesto mix as sort of a pesto Alfredo mix. I ate a lot of it off the spoon. It was amazing. Each little pizza got about 2 tablespoon of the pesto cream, then some grated cheese, bacon pieces and a few slices of tomatoes. I baked them on cookie sheets for twenty minutes at 425 degrees, watching them closely. 

Pesto Use Recipe #2: Pesto Crusted Lamb Chops

Ingredeints:

8 lovely little lamb chops

8 tablespoons pesto

2 tablespoons butter

Rub each side of the thawed lamb chops with about a half tablespoon pesto a piece. Heat a cast iron skillet to medium high heat and turn your oven on to 450 degrees. When heated, melt butter in the skillet and sear each side of your pesto lamb for about 2 minutes a piece. Transfer your cast iron skillet to your oven and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes. Five minutes for rare, seven for a little more well done.

They were so delicious our two year old begged for the bones to munch on. Seriously.

Pesto Use Recipe #3: Pesto Cream over Butter Poached Peas

Ingredeints:

2 cups fresh garden peas

2 tablespoon butter

Warmed Pesto Cream

Pesto cream :

1/2 cup pesto

2 tablespoons plain whole fat yogurt

2 tablespoon sour cream

Saute your peas in melted butter until soft (about 5-7 minutes). Microwave your pesto cream for about 45 seconds. Spoon cream over peas for a sweet, tangy and springy treat!