Recipe: Pistachio-Basil Pesto (via Rachael Ray)

     You can never go wrong with pesto. It goes with just about anything. I've used it with pasta, chicken, fish and beef. It's just incredibly versatile. I found this particular recipe in my good friend Rachael Ray's magazine. I was drawn to it because it used pistachios instead of pine nuts. I don't normally keep pine nuts in the house. I do, however, keep pistachios by the pound. We also had a huge supply of basil from the garden, so we made a lot of this.
     We did find that this is cannable! We doubled the amount of lemon juice when making the recipe for canning. We then loaded it to about 1/4" shy of the top in a half-pint jar. Process in a boiling water canner for about 15 minutes. We haven't gotten sick from it yet, even using pesto that was about a year old! Granted, if you can it and manage to get sick, obviously I never recommended canning in the first place and you probably did something wrong, so I can't be held responsible.

Pistachio-Basil Pesto
(via Rachael Ray)

Ingredients 

• 2 garlic cloves 
• ½ cup shelled pistachios 
• 2 cups loosely packed basil 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 
• ¼ cup Parmigiano/Romano cheese 

Directions

1. Pulse garlic in food processor until chopped 
2. Add pistachios, basil, lemon juice and salt. Pulse until nuts are finely chopped 
3. Add olive oil gradually through food chute and process until well combined 
4. Add cheese and pulse 2 or 3 times 

Makes about 1 cup.
Per tablespoon: 70 calories, 7g fat

Good times!

Monday Recipe: Pistachio Basil Pesto

     Sometimes all you need to put together a nice meal is a good jumping-off point. Some simple ingredient that can be used for dozens of different purposes. One of my favorites is pesto. Pesto is so simple and versatile. Now, you could be lazy and go buy a pre-made pesto from the store, but there's really no reason for that. Pesto is super easy to make. It only has a handful of ingredients and you don't need to actually cook it.

     I like this recipe a lot because I'm not a huge fan of pine nuts. I do, however, love pistachios.  Fair warning, if you make more than one batch at a time, you're likely to develop repetitive stress disorder from shelling all those pistachios. You could just buy them already shelled, but that's a bit more expensive. A two pound bag of shelled pistachio costs a dollar more than a four pound bag of unshelled. And shouldn't "shelled" mean the shell is still on, not off? Just saying.

     There's a lot you can do with this pesto. If you want to be lazy, just toss it with a little melted butter and pasta. Add some shrimp. Crust a piece of salmon. Or tofu. Throw it in some tomato soup. Eat it straight from the container with a spoon. 

     For the life of me, I can't remember where this recipe came from.  I either picked it up from Bon Appetit or my good friend Rachael Ray. 

     I don't have a picture of the pesto handy, so I'll include a grainy screencap of Pesto from the Animaniacs. Try to imagine him tossed with shrimp and rotini. Good times!

mmm...delicious

Pistachio Basil Pesto (via Bon Appetit or Rachel Ray)

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves

½ cup shelled pistachios

2 cups loosely packed basil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup Parmigiana/Romano cheese

Directions

• Pulse garlic in food processor until chopped
• Add pistachios, basil, lemon juice and salt. Pulse until nuts are finely chopped
• Add olive oil gradually through food chute and process until well combined
• Add cheese and pulse 2 or 3 times

Makes about 1 cup.

Per tablespoon: 70 calories, 7g fat