This is our first year growing arugula, and I have to say I’m impressed with how easy it is to grow. We planted it a box in early September, and within three days we had sprouts. It required little maintenance, just watering. One thing we’ve learned in the process is that arugula gets more peppery as it matures. The leaves had a mild peppery flavor early on, but now some of the larger leaves are downright bitter, so balancing the feisty flavor with spinach seemed the way to go for this pesto. The original recipe at Epicurious.com calls for serving on top of grilled hamburgers, which we did, and the combination of the peppery arugula, garlic, and crushed red pepper makes a great topping for hamburgers or vegan burgers paired with grilled onions and Swiss cheese.

The original recipe calls for quickly wilting the spinach in the microwave, though you could do it in a steamer basket, too. For a time saver, I think the recipe still tastes good when using raw baby spinach.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page. Submissions for this round are due on October 30, and you can send your information and photo to me at andreasrecipesgyo AT gmail DOT com.

Other Pesto or Condiment Recipes

More Arugula Recipes From Around the Blogs

Simply Recipes – Toasted Turkey Cranberry Arugula Sandwich

80 Breakfasts – Arugula and Apple Salad

Apartment Therapy – Egg, Arugula, and Herb Tartine

Panini Happy – Red Dragon, Roast Beef, and Arugula Panini

Equipment

food processor
large microwave safe bowl or large pan and steamer basket

Ingredients

8 ounces (227 g) baby spinach leaves, rinsed and well-drained
2 cloves garlic, peeled and ends trimmed
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
2 cups (packed) (~2.5 ounces/71 g) fresh arugula leaves
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup (80 mil) extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
sea salt, to taste

Preparation

1. Cook the rinsed spinach in the microwave for about 60 to 90 seconds, or steam for about 2 minutes in a steamer basket over hot water. Drain well, squeezing all the liquid out with your hands.

2. Process the garlic, lemon zest, and red pepper in the food processor until the garlic is finely chopped. Add the spinach, arugula, pine nuts, and lemon juice, then process until you have a coarse puree.

3. Gradually add the olive oil, pouring in a slow stream while the machine runs. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and salt to taste. Serve as a topping for grilled hamburgers or vegan burgers.

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Source: adapted from Epicurious.com

Thanks for reading this blog through a feed! Copyright © 2005-2010 Andrea Meyers: cooking, gardening & four hungry guys.

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My fondness for chimichurri started back in the early 90s when I was teaching in Colombia. There’s this great restaurant called Andres Carne de Res north of Bogota, and I remember having chimichurri with a steak there. First of all, the steak was one of the best I’d ever tasted (still), the stuffed grilled tomato on the side was fabulous, and the chimichurri just seemed to bring it all together. I seem to remember plenty of cilantro in their chimichurri, which is probably what drew me to it.

Chimichurri has it’s origins in Argentina but is popular throughout South America. The basic ingredients are herbs, garlic, olive oil, paprika, and vinegar, but there many variations and it seems that no two families make it the same way. Some people like to use just parsley, or combine parsley with cilantro or oregano, and the amounts of garlic and liquid ingredients vary. Some recipes have a little heat in the form of pepper flakes, and I’ll toss in a few every now and then. Roasting the garlic is another delightful variation that lends a subtle buttery flavor.

It’s a great all-purpose sauce that goes well with beef, chicken, and fish. Chimichurri is quick and easy and quite healthy with all the vitamins and minerals from the herbs and garlic. The parsley provides loads of vitamin C, which helps our bodies to absorb the iron in meat. We enjoy the freshness of the parsley and oregano from our garden. I usually add cilantro, but my plants are very slow in producing right now, so no cilantro this time.

This is my contribution to this week’s edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, a weekly event founded by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. This week’s hosts are Amy and Johnny of We Are Never Full, so check out their blog next week for the round-up.

Other Recipes with Fresh Parsley

More Chimichurri Recipes From Around the Blogs

Je Mange la Ville – Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri

Kalyn’s Kitchen – Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Once Upon a Feast – Chimichurri Meatloaf

No Recipes – Steak with mint chimichurri sauce

Equipment

food processor

Ingredients

large bunch of fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, thick stems trimmed
handful of fresh cilantro leaves and stems
leaves from 2 to 3 stems of fresh oregano
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 to 1-1/2 cups (237 to 355 mil) extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup (119 mil) red wine vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Preparation

1. Put the parsley, oregano, garlic, and about 1/4 cup (59 mil) of the olive oil into the food processor and pulse until the leaves are coarsely ground.

2. Add the red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper and pulse. Continue to pulse while drizzling in the olive oil. The sauce should have a fair amount of liquid, though some people prefer it to be a little more dry, so check for consistency to meet your preference.

3. Serve immediately. Store in a lidded jar for up to one month in the refrigerator. If the olive oil thickens up, just allow the chimichurri to come to room temperature before using.

References

Wikipedia – Chimichurri

Wikipedia – Parsley

Thanks for reading this blog through a feed! Copyright © 2005-2010 Andrea Meyers: cooking, gardening & four hungry guys.

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In my view, fresh, ripe tomatoes are meant to be enjoyed in their natural state, and nothing beats the taste of a tomato straight off the vine. When I start gathering the tomatoes from my garden, I’ll often stand near the plants and just enjoy inhaling the wonderful smell. I follow my family’s tradition and eat lightly salted slices or I just bite into one and add a pinch of salt with each bite. Little grape or sungold tomatoes adorn our salads and the boys eat them by the handful.

This summer we are growing San Marzano tomatoes, the classic Roma tomato for Italian cuisine, and I couldn’t resist making a no-cook sauce using these terrific tomatoes and some fresh basil and thyme from the garden. The kitchen was awash with the heady aromas of basil, garlic, and thyme, which also seemed to cling to my hands for a few hours after making the sauce, but I didn’t mind a bit.

We thought the flavor was very good, and it was a no-brainer, easy dish to fix. You just mix together all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and let them sit at room temperature for up to three hours, then toss it with cooked pasta. You can make this a quick weeknight meal if you shorten the sitting time for the sauce. Michael and I agreed that there isn’t enough sauce for a pound of pasta, so we would double the sauce next time.

Equipment

large nonreactive bowl

Ingredients
(If you like lots of sauce, then I suggest doubling the ingredients.)

SAUCE
2 pounds ripe San Marzano or roma tomatoes, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh basil or flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh thyme
1 to 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; more to taste
pinch crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 pound cooked linguine

Preparation

1. Stir together the tomatoes, olive oil, basil, thyme, garlic, black pepper, and pepper flakes in the large bowl. Set aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 hours.

2. Toss the sauce together with the cooked pasta and serve immediately.

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Source: adapted from Fine Cooking

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I’m certainly not the first food blogger to reference Marcella Hazan, and I think I can safely predict that I will not be the last. She is considered one of the foremost authorities on Italian cuisine, and her book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is one that I constantly turn to when cooking Italian dishes. The book was originally published over thirty years ago as two separate volumes, The Classic Italian Cook Book and More Classic Italian Cooking, and the combined volume has been revised, updated, and expanded. Of her first book, British food writer Roy Andries de Groot wrote, “Marcella’s book is the most authentic guide to Italian food ever written in the U.S.” No small compliment, to be sure.

According to Essentials, carbonara sauce has it’s roots in Rome during the last days of World War II when American soldiers brought eggs and bacon to local families to make into a pasta sauce. Pancetta is the preferred meat in this dish, although a good mellow slab bacon can be used. The recipe cooks quickly and makes a great weeknight meal.

WARNING: The eggs in this dish do not cook fully, they are simply beaten and tossed with the hot cooked pasta. Hazan notes a salmonella warning in her recipe, so you should take care to use the freshest available eggs and make sure that they are stored properly. If you are really concerned about it, you can use an egg substitute such as Egg Beaters®, which is pasteurized.

Equipment

8-quart pot with a lid
small saute pan
medium to large serving bowl (large enough to allow you to toss around a pound of cooked pasta with the sauce)

Ingredients

1 pound spaghetti
4 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch wide strips
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup freshly grated romano cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Preparation

1. Add 6 quarts of water to the 8-quart pot and bring to a boil. Cook the spaghetti to al dente.

***While the pasta cooks***

2. Mash the garlic lightly and remove the skin. Add the garlic and olive oil to the saute pan and cook over medium high heat, until the garlic turns a deep gold. Remove the garlic and discard it.

3. Add the pancetta strips to the pan and saute until they become crisp around the edges. Stir in the white wine and let it bubble for a minute or two, then turn off the heat.

4. Add the beaten eggs to the serving bowl. Stir in the romano and parmigiano cheeses, 3 or 4 grinds of fresh black pepper, and the chopped parsley.

5. Drain the spaghetti and add it to bowl. Toss well.

6. Reheat the pancetta strips for about a minute, then pour the contents of the pan in with the pasta. Toss it all together and serve immediately.

Resources

Wikipedia – Marcella Hazan

Counting Her Blessings

Wikipedia – Pancetta

DolceVita Recipes

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Source: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan

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This is Michael’s mom’s spaghetti sauce, the one he grew up with. His mom has quite a sense of humor. She jokes that she isn’t Italian so she can’t make Italian spaghetti, but she’s Polish so she can make “Polish spaghetti.” Authentic or not, it’s a good, easy multi-purpose sauce that you can use for spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, or other baked pasta dishes, and you can cook it all day in the slow cooker or in a couple hours on the stove.

Equipment

6-quart slow cooker or 6-quart pot with a lid

Ingredients

1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste
1-1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1-1/2 teaspoons dried basil
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (optional)

Preparation

Slow cooker: Put all ingredients in the slow cooker and stir. Cook on high for 1 hour and then on low for 6 hours or more. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Stove: Put all ingredients in the 6-quart pot and stir. Cover and cook on medium until the sauce just begins to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 2-1/2 hours. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

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Source: Ann Meyers

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At the risk of jinxing things, I have to say that our garden is really doing well this year. We have tons of tomatoes that will be ready for picking next week. The herbs are going crazy. The Italian parsley and the dill are about three feet tall with lots of leaves, the oregano and sage are threatening to take over, and the basil is getting taller and bushier. If I can just keep the june bugs from devouring all of those tasty basil leaves, then we’ll have a bumper crop this year.

Michael and I grow lots of basil each year. Throughout the summer we cut the leaves and use them in pesto, other pasta sauces, or as a layer in lasagna. Even with frequent use, we often have many plants left over at the end of the season. So we cut them all down and spend an afternoon making pesto and freezing it. You can freeze small blocks of it in ice cube trays, then put the blocks into freezer bags. We find those very convenient in the wintertime for making sauces or just thawing a few to toss with linguine.

Equipment

food processor

Ingredients

1 cup fresh basil leaves (packed)
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Preparation

In a food processor, finely chop basil, garlic, and nuts together. Slowly add oil. Gradually add cheese until blended. Toss mixture into hot pasta and serve immediately.

Variations

We sometimes leave out the pine nuts and sprinkle them fresh on top of the pasta.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

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Marinara is a very easy sauce that only requires a few ingredients. You can make a winter version following this recipe, or you can make a summer version using peeled fresh tomatoes and fresh basil in season. It makes a pretty dish when you use the sauce as a bottom layer and put some ravioli on top garnished with some parmegiano reggiano and some parsley. We also like it with tortellini or gnocchi.

This recipe makes a large batch, so you can freeze the extra in 32 ounce containers and pull one out for a quick mid-week meal.

Equipment

6 quart pot with heavy bottom
sharp knife

Ingredients

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium to large onion, finely diced
6 to 10 cloves of garlic (to tast), minced
2 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes in juice
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
4 tablespoons dried basil
6 tablespoons pinot grigio or other dry white wine

Preparation

1. Add olive oil to the pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until it starts glistening, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1 to 2 minutes, just until it starts to soften.

2. Add the tomatoes, basil, and pinot grigio. Cook over medium heat until the sauce starts to bubble. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes.

3. Pour over cooked pasta.

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My husband and I both love to make pizza, but we like different pizza styles. I prefer hand-tossed or thin crusts, and my favorite kind of pizza is pizza margherita, although I do like some sauce occasionally or even a pizza blanca. My husband loves Chicago style pizza swimming in sauce, deep dish or stuffed. He makes a different kind of sauce, and I’ll post the recipe the next time we make a stuffed pizza. Check out the Easy Bread Machine Pizza Dough recipe for an easy tasty crust to go along with the sauce.

Equipment

small sauce pan
sharp knife

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons red wine
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

Preparation

1. Prep all the ingredients first and have them sitting ready to go. The recipe cooks fast, so this step is important.

2. In a medium saucepan, sauté garlic in oil until golden. Watch it closely as the garlic can go from golden to burned in a nanosecond.

3. Add tomato paste, water, wine, sugar, oregano, basil, and cheese.

4. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

5. Simmer for 10 minutes over medium low heat. Remove from heat and spread over pizza prepared pizza dough.

Notes

Covers two medium pizzas or one large pizza.

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Source: not really sure, found on the Internet several years ago

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In the summertime, our garden is filled with the scent of sweet basil. We usually try to devote an entire raised bed just to basil. We use it fresh in dishes such as this pesto throughout the summer and into the fall. When we near the end of season, we cut down all the remaining stalks and spend an afternoon making different kinds of pesto and freezing it for the winter. We usually make several batches of this so that we can pull it out for a quick meal, and the wonderful flavor always reminds us of our summer garden.

[Updated: October 19, 2008]

Equipment

food processor

Ingredients

12 ounces (340 g) sun-dried tomato halves, packed in oil
6 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup (~120 mil) extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 cups (~80 g) basil, packed
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons honey

Preparation

1. Process tomatoes and garlic in food processor until coarsely chopped, about 1 minute. While machine is running, drizzle in olive oil and vinegar and process for 1 minute. Add basil, pepper, and honey and process until completely mixed. Add more balsamic vinegar if desired.

2. Toss pesto over hot pasta and sprinkle pine nuts and grated Parmesan on top.

Notes

To freeze, pack pesto into small plastic containers (about 4 ounces) and press a layer of plastic wrap over the surface of the pesto. Add the lid. It will keep for up to 6 months in the freezer.

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Source: unsure, gathered off the Internet several years ago

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