Duo di Pesto

Un duo di pesto rosso e verde

My first post is about one of my favourite recipes during summer: pesto. Appetizers, starters and main dishes are all possibilities with pesto. It’s easy to make, but so tasteful. Give your guests for example some pieces of roasted bread and let them dip it in the pesto, another possibility is to make a bruschetta with pesto. The leftovers can be used to make a lovely pesto pasta for the next day.

You can also make a gift basket for your guests, just put some pesto in a little bottle and add some grissini’s or pasta.

 Le pesto verde, pesto di coriandolo, parmegianno, menta, pistacchi e mandorle

  What do you need? 60 grams of almonds, 60 grams of pistachios, a hand full of rocket salad, two hands full of coriander, 80ml olive oil, 3 Tblsp. cream, two hands basil, mint, 8-10 Tblsp Parmigiano cheese, one clove of garlic – a mortar and pestle – a blender or a food processor

 What do you do?

Take a pan. Roast the pistachios first and after a minute or two add the almonds. Put them in the mortar and pestle to grind them. If you’re in a hurry you can just put them in a blender or food processor together with the rocket salad, coriander, garlic, cream, basil, cheese and mix it. Add olive oil and keep on blending. Add some fresh black pepper and salt, as you like. Or if you really like the taste of coriander, just add more than two hands. (that’s what i always do)

 Le pesto rosso, pesto di ricotta, basilico, noci pecan, pinoli e pomodori secchi

 What do you need? 4 Tblsp of ricotta cheese, juice of sun dried tomatoes, 150 gr sun dried tomatoes – 70gr of pecans (chopped) – 70gr of pine nuts (chopped) – a small handful of fresh basil – 60ml olive oil – pepper and salt – one clove of garlic – a mortar and pestle – a blender or food processor

 Roast the nuts, be careful that you don’t burn them. I did it the first time J Chop the garlic in not so small pieces. Put them, together with the ricotta, sun dried tomatoes, basil, juice of sun dried tomatoes in a blender. Mix it. Add the nuts (do not use all your nuts, leave a little for the decoration. Mix again.

If you want to make bruschetta’s, put the bread now in the oven. While your bread is in the oven, add the olive oil in the blender and mix it in.

If it’s not creamy enough, you can add some more ricotta. Aren’t there enough tomatoes, put some more tomatoes in it. Is it too creamy, add more olive oil.

 For the bruschetta’s

What do you need? A ciabatta – your home made pesto – some Parmigiano cheese – some chopped nuts of your pesto (pecans and pine nuts or almonds and pistachios )– mint or coriander or basil – an oven

 Cut the ciabatta in slices. Put the slice in a preheated oven. Take the slices of bread out of the oven when they are crunchy (approximately 5 minutes). Put some pesto on top and finish with some cheese, fresh herbs like coriander or mint and nuts.

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