Friday, November 19, 2010

Parsley Pesto

Our garden is still going strong with lettuce, kale, turnips, beets, rosemary, cress, and lots of parsley!  We found this delicious and zingy recipe for parsley pesto in our local newspaper.  (I think it originally came from the book Cook Italy.)  It's an interesting recipe because it uses neither Parmesan cheese nor nuts, staples of traditional pesto.  Yet the results are great!  If you have surplus parsley, this is a winner!

Parley and Lemon Pesto

1 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 clove garlic, peeled and pressed
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs (I like the panko style)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2/3 cup olive oil
2 tsp lemon zest
Salt and pepper (optional)

Put everything into a food processor and run until a nice paste forms.  Enjoy!  It freezes well, too.

4 comments:

Alex Zorach said...

This sounds really delicious. I love the idea of pestos made out of things other than basil, as much as I love the traditional, basil-centered pesto.

At some point, is it pesto though? For example, if you use cilantro as the base, and add cayenne or serrano pepper (which I would be inclined to do), it starts to become more like Indian cilantro chutney than a pesto.

In some ways, the line starts to become blurred between all these foods. But I absolutely love them all...chopped up blends of strong green herbs!

Marlena said...

Wow, that sounds good - I will save it for next summer. Your pkg won't be mailed until Mon - too slow for words this week.

Marilyn Miller said...

Yummm! Sounds good. We have a little parsley, but not enough for much of anything maybe a sprig or two.

mep said...

If only I had a garden . . . sigh. Looks delicious.