Parsley Pesto Passion!

The incredible creature I'm dating loves plants, and has many lovely herbs thriving on his apartment balcony. What better way to restart a bit of Sexy Food blogging then to talk about the gloriously rich and sexy PARSLEY PESTO I made the other night, with fresh Italian parsley from my gloriously sexy, parsley-providing loverman? Even if you don't have one of those, I promise you this parsley pesto is easier to find, and almost as sexy. Yes.

Apparently his neighbor urged him to buy a little parsley plant despite the fact he wasn't so keen on the stuff, to which it then promptly thrived with no more attention from said neighbor. Leaving me, then, the chance to prune it! Or rather, to harvest it while saying my hellos. We got to know each other quite well and I left that day with a big ziploc bag full of fresh, deep green stems of lightly pungent, flat leaf parsley. AND a generous handful of bright, tiny tomatoes, on their tiny curling vines from my beau's beautifully bountiful tomato plant.

After a day of wondering what to do with it all, I stumbled across a recipe in my fabulous "Beard on Pasta" book - literally flipping the book open to a Parsley Pesto and tomato recipe. HUZZAH!

The BEST thing about pesto, I have discovered now for good - is that it's the EASIEST thing to make on the fly, provided you have the herb you need - parsley, basil, etc. Everything is pretty cheap and easy to keep all the time, but the result is a very special and brightly flavored meal that you just normally don't remember you can eat all the time. (I did have to splurge on the parmesan cheese. Fluffy lovely parmasean cheese like freshly shaved iced - worth the $5 and 15 minute walk in the late afternoon heat it took to buy it).

Here is the recipe I used for the Pesto, taking liberties with how much parsley I used (I had one of those big ziploc freezer bags full of it and used it all! And it came out perfect. So I think that was more than "4-5 bunches". I had Italian parsley though, so maybe it's less strong then regular parsley).

Pasta with Parsley Pesto

4-5 bunches parsley, stems removed
3 large cloves garlic
1 cup whole walnuts
1 cup olive oil
1.5 tsp. salt
3/4 cup parmesan cheese (I used Woodstock Farms organic grated)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor (or blender). Process the ingredients until you have a well-blended pesto.

Cook your noodles, then toss with olive oil and put a dollop (or a volcano, like I did) of the pesto on top.

TA-DAH!



My pesto came out a rich forest green, deliciously thick and dense. BLARG! DROOL! HEAVEN! I was completely floored with joy.

Not only that, the recipe included a little side dish recipe for melted 'dill butter' poured over cherry tomatoes. Well, I didn't have any dill, but I threw the top half of my double boiler onto the boiling pasta pot, melted some butter with roughly cracked black pepper and poured the mix over my little halved baby tomatoes and it was RESPLENDENT!



Yes, it was.

The bright, just-picked colors, the balance between the sweet, buttery warmth of the warmed, tangy tomatoes and the sharp, rich, nutty taste of the pesto was just too much to handle. I ate so much.



Then, I spread the cold, thick leftover pesto on one side of my toasted egg sandwich the next day for a self-congratulatory leftover meal! (fried egg, mayo, sharp chedder cheese, the pesto and soft, sweet egg bread from the farmer's market. Uh, yes please).




Ingredients well spent!