Eating pesto morning, noon and night

Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale. After boiling and draining a half-pound of pasta, I placed it in a large bowl and added 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of the refrigerated pesto, mixing the pasta and sauce well, then garnished them with whole pine nuts and shredded Kirkland Signature Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, below.

Do not heat the pesto before adding it to the hot pasta.

Costco Wholesale has made it much too easy to enjoy pesto at any meal.

Made from 100% imported Italian basil, Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto is far better than another Costco product I tried a couple of years ago.

This is typical of Costco, which often improves on another company's products and puts its Kirkland Signature brand name on the label.

For a terrific breakfast sandwich, I have spread Costco's fragrant pesto on two halves of a baguette, added sliced, reduced-fat Swiss and placed the halves under the broiler until the cheese melted.


Another great breakfast is an omelet or eggs sunny side up eaten with Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti. 

An open-face, egg-white omelet with sliced cheese and pesto is a great eye opener.

  

Of course, pasta pesto can be enjoyed at lunch and dinner, too.

And a teaspoon or more of pesto will elevate any broiled fish fillet. 

The Basil Pesto, which comes in a 22-ounce clear plastic jar, is made from a half-dozen ingredients, including what is described as "pure, sweet basil" from the region of Liguria and Pecorino Romano sheep's milk cheese.

I have always preferred to make my own pesto, because I use far more basil than just about anyone else, but Costco's version is the best substitute for homemade I've found. 

Here is a recipe for Blender Pesto from a post I wrote in January:

Marcella Hazan's Blender Pesto Recipe 

Simply prepared food invites you to dig in

Two organic eggs with sauteed cabbage and salted cod fish.

Pan-fried whole fresh croaker with mashed sweet Kabocha squash

Mashed squash reappears at breakfast with eggs and sun-dried tomatoes.

Wild king salmon and whole-wheat spaghetti, both with freshly made pesto.

Pasta and egg whites with pesto are a healthy alternative to bacon and eggs.

Here is Marcella Hazan's recipe for making pesto in a blender, minus salt and butter.

She used two kinds of cheese, but I use only grated Pecorino Romano, a sheep's milk cheese.

I made pesto a few days ago, and used the "Chop" setting on my blender -- a slow speed that allowed me to push down the basil, garlic and other ingredients as the blender worked.

BLENDER PESTO

Enough for 1 pound or six servings of pasta

2 cups fresh basil leaves 

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons pine nuts

2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with a heavy knife blade and peeled

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1. Put the pine nuts, garlic cloves, basil and extra-virgin olive oil in the blender and mix at high speed.  Stop from time to time and scrape the ingredients down toward the bottom of the blender cup with a rubber spatula.  

2.  When the ingredients are evenly blended, pour into a bowl and beat in the two grated cheeses by hand. (This is not much work, and it results in more interesting texture and better flavor than you get when you mix in the cheese in the blender.)  If you do not want to use the pesto immediately, put it into a closed container and freeze it before you add the cheese.

3. Before spooning the pesto over the pasta, add to it a tablespoon or so of the hot water in which the pasta has boiled.  Do not heat the pesto before you add it to the pasta.

Note: The best pesto has a great deal of basil in it. I use leaves and stems, and pack a measuring cup with it. The more basil, the better. I've also added mint, rosemary, arugula, parsley and other herbs, but think basil makes the best pesto.

Going wild over wild salmon

Image via Wikipedia

I combined fresh wild sockeye salmon and smoked wild sockeye in a superb breakfast sandwich this morning. 


The fresh fish was left over from dinner last night, when I baked the fillet I bought at Costco with a little salt, Aleppo red pepper, chopped herbs and lemon juice. At 350 degrees, I got rare pieces in about 7 minutes, medium in about 10 minutes.


I toasted whole-grain bread, spread one piece with homemade pesto, added the two kinds of wild salmon, tomato with za'atar thyme mixture, organic salad greens, a little parsley-and-red-onion salad and sliced cheese. Wow.


The bread, preservative-free smoked salmon, Campari tomato and organic salad greens also came from Costco.

(Photo: Sockeye salmon)

Spread that pesto nice and thick

Wild salmon and whole-wheat pasta go better with pesto.

This has been an uneven summer for Jersey produce: the tomatoes have been either earthy or woolly; the four ears of corn I have tried so far weren't sweet at all; and I didn't see much in the way of basil until I came across a big bunch this week at the ShopRite in Rochelle Park.

I needed the basil for one of the 101 salads from The Times (see previous posts), but there was so much left, I decided to make my first batch of blender pesto this summer (see recipe below). 

For breakfast, I spread the pesto on my toasted 100% whole grain bread from Costco, stuck some fresh basil leaves and cilantro to it, laid on a nice portion of smoked wild salmon, also from Costco, added shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and topped that with sliced tomato and za'atar thyme mixture. 

The garlicky pesto really elevates that sandwich.

Blender pesto
  (courtesy of Marcella Hazan)

Place ingredients in the blender in this order:

2 heaping tablespoons of pine nuts (pignoli)

2 large cloves of garlic smashed and peeled, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups basil leaves and stems packed (don't skimp on the basil)

3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Start the blender with the top off and push down the basil with a rubber spatula. Stop the blender and push down the leaves on top under the liquid below. Continue blending and pushing until the blades suck down and liquify everything into a thick, flowing mixture. Empty into a bowl. At this point, you can freeze the pesto in a plastic container for later use. When thawed, add:

3/4 to 1 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, or more to taste, and blend in with a fork or spoon.

You can use another cheese, such as pecorino romano. Pesto does not require heating. Use as a sandwich spread, put a big spoonful on top of cooked fish or meat, or add to 1 pound of pasta, preferably penne, medium shells or other small pasta, cooked al dente. You can garnish the pasta with more pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes or not.

Pesto originated in Genoa, Italy, where they add sliced, boiled potatoes to their pasta pesto. I was introduced to it in the early 1970s and I have never tired of it. My first taste each summer, and every taste, is a delight.