Encouraging people to eat their greens is a passion of mine. We even eat the greens from our carrot bunches!
Pesto is one of my favorite greens recipes because it's so versatile. It's a sauce that originated in the Ligurian region of northern Italy. Pesto genovese, from Genoa, traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil, and pine nuts blended with olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano.
But you can make it from any greens that you have. I've made it with Mizuna greens, dandelion greens, and even just parsley. This version is made with wild arugula greens, parsley, and black garlic. Click to read about my intro to black garlic. This is a super duper, super delicious non-traditional pesto.
The name derives from the Italian verb pestare which means to pound or to crush, referring to the original way of preparing it - with a mortar and pestle. The ingredients in a traditional pesto are ground with a circular motion of the pestle in the mortar. Now I use a blender. It's much easier!
- 2 C wild arugula greens
- 1 C parsley
- 2 cloves black garlic
- 1/2 C sliced almonds
- 1/2 C shredded parmesan
- olive oil
- freshly ground pepper
- fleur de sel
Procedure
Place all of the ingredients into the blender. Pulse a few times, drizzle in olive oil, and resume pulsing. Pulse. Oil. Pulse. Oil.
If you want a smoother, sauce-like pesto, add more olive oil and blend longer; if you want a chunkier pesto, use less oil and blend for less time. So simple. So fresh. So fragrant.
Serving ideas: tossed into pasta, smeared on sandwiches as a condiment...get creative!
Thank you so much Camilla for joining in with Eat your Greens, most appreciated. I love the sound of this arugula pesto with black garlic. I've seen black garlic around but not picked it up yet, may do so this year. PS We also eat our carrot greens.
ReplyDeletePS Please come back at the end of the month for the round up.