Food Blogs
Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto Recipe
In the past few years, Americans have been treated to a dazzling array of new convenience food; the supermarket aisles are lined with items you can eat right now! I’m not a big fan of most of these. But I am a big fan of pre-washed, pretrimmed greens, like the bags of baby spinach that are almost universally available. Cleaning fresh spinach is no treat: The bunches are filled with sand and grit, requiring multiple changes of water to remove; and it’s time-consuming to separate the fibrous stalks from the tender leaves. But these bags of baby spinach, on the other hand, are ready to go: Tear open the bag, dump the greens into a salad bowl, and they’re ready to dress. Or just toss into the sauté pan with a little olive oil and garlic, and you can be eating bright, fresh spinach in mere seconds. Or throw into the blender with some other ingredients—and bingo! Pesto!
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Ingredients
- 2 cup baby spinach leaves tightly packed, about 2 ounces
- cup ¼toasted pine nuts
- 1 teaspoons to 2grated lemon zest from about 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice from about ½ lemon
- cup ⅓olive oil
- cup ⅓freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- teaspoon ½salt plus more to taste
- teaspoon ½freshly ground black pepper plus more to taste
Ingredients
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Instructions
- In the Bowl of a food processor, combine the spinach, pine nuts, lemon zest, and lemon juice. With the machine running, gradually add the oil, blending until the mixture is creamy. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl. Stir in the Parmesan and ½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Season the pesto with more salt and pepper to taste. (The pesto can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
- This is great with grilled chicken.