Spinach Pistachio Pesto

 Pesto is one of the most versatile sauces. You can put it on pasta, chicken, beef, lamb, sandwiches and list can go on and on. It is completely delicious! Your basic pesto is basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil. It's not only widely used it's very easy to make. If you have a food processor or blender its even easier to make! The beauty of pesto is that you can change it up. You can stick with tradition or think outside the box. Just switch out the greens and/or the nuts and as long as you have garlic, olive oil and parmesan you'll be fine.

One of my favorite greens is spinach. It's simply delicious. I'm also fond of pistachios. I happened to have both so I though why not! The result was this wonderfully delicate pesto. The color alone was beautiful and the flavor delightful.

As of now, it's my new favorite pesto! I've used it in pasta, as a sauce for beef & chicken and as a spread in a turkey sandwich. However you use it, it's delicious! 

This pesto is Popeye approved!

Buen Provecho!

4 oz of Spinach in blender or food processor

Add 1 large clove of garlic, if garlic is small use two

1/2 cup pistachios

1/4 cup to 1/2 cup Parmesan

Slowly drizzle olive oil into the blender top until the sauce emulsifies.

Delightful Green & Delicious

Toss with spaghetti & top with shaved Parmesan cheese. Yum!

Spinach Pistachio Pesto - yields about 3/4 - 1 cup

4 oz spinach
1 large garlic clove
1/4-1/2 cup of  parmesan cheese, to your taste (start small & add as you go)
1/2 cup pistachio, shelled
1/2 - 3/4 cup olive oil
Salt n Pepper to taste

1. In a blender add spinach, garlic, pistachio and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Blend ingredients together. Through the top opening slowly pour olive oil until you reach the wanted consistency. In between thick and thin. Adjust for seasoning if necessary. Enjoy!

If making Pesto Spaghetti

Ingredients: yields 4 servings

1lb Spaghetti
1/4-1/3 cup Spinach Pistachio Pesto Sauce - If you want to use more feel free. Make it your own!


1.  I boiled the pasta according to package instructions, shy a 1-2 minutes of cooking time, until al dente. Save a cup of the pasta water. Drain spaghetti. Add 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of pesto to spaghetti. Slowly add pasta water a tablespoon at a time, just enough to make a sauce. You will not use all the water. Toss the sauce and spaghetti, serve immediately. Top with shaved Parmesan. Buen Provecho!

Red & White Lasagna

Anytime I go on vacation without my husband, aka girls weekend or girls week, I always make him lasagna. I do this for two reasons: 1. His favorite dish is lasagna.  and 2. I do it so that he's not left to his own devices. In other words, fast food. I enjoy making him the lasagna, it's become a tradition. So when I went on my girls week in San Diego, late July, with my cousins, I prepared him a Red & White Lasagna. I love a good meat sauce and a garlicky white sauce together, it's a beautiful flavorful marriage.

I make both of these sauces separately and make them with different pastas like spaghetti and fettuccine. My meat sauce has some traditional ingredients and some of my favorite flavors. The basics ingredients I use are carrots (I forgot to add them this time, oops!), onions, ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, basil, oregano, thyme and canned crushed tomatoes.  Occasionally I'll add different things into it just to try out flavors and textures. This sauce really allows you to experiment and be adventurous. So feel free to add or take away, make it your own.

My white sauce is a very traditional bechamel sauce. Flour, butter, milk, garlic, nutmeg, salt n pepper. Bechamel is perfection in simplicity. It takes basic pantry ingredients and makes them taste spectacular! The subtlety of the nutmeg and the sassy taste of the garlic makes this one of my favorite sauces. I've used raw garlic and roasted garlic in this sauce. Both taste amazing, but if you want a sweeter mellow garlic flavor use roasted garlic. It's absolutely delicious!  If you want to make this into an Alfredo sauce just melt in Parmesan cheese. If you want to make a cheddar sauce melt in cheddar cheese. It's that easy! This bechamel is so versatile you can travel so many roads with this basic sauce. Go Nuts!!

Let's talk noodle. You can boil up lasagna noodles and lay them out beforehand. Personally for me it's just makes more work. Lasagna already takes time and energy so I was so grateful when Barilla came out with No Boil (Oven Ready) Lasagna Noodles. I was sooooooooooo happy!!! It made lasagna making so much easier! When you're short on time and kitchen space these no boil lasagna noodles are the way to go. They come out just like their boiled counterpart. The only caveat to these noodles is that you need to cover the noodle completly in sauce. If there is a part without sauce it will cook up crispy, it needs the moisture to soften and cook through.

When I finish layering my lasagna I normally just sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan, but this time around I used a specialty cheese, Rupert a cow's milk cheese made in Vermont, we had bought at Cowgirl's Creamery in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. I thought it would be a great use and make the lasagna a little bit more special. It wasn't necessary but if you got, use it! The Rupert melted beautifully and gave the dish an extra something!

I hope you enjoy it as much as my hubby!

Buen Provecho!

Dice half a onion.

I use a microplane to grate the garlic.

Brown onions & garlic.

Add meat and brown. Add dried herbs, oregano, thyme & basil.

Cook until all bits of meat are caramelized (brown).

Add Worcestershire sauce and with a wooden spoon scrap up the nice flavor bits on the bottom.

Add a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes.

I like a bit of brown sugar in mine. Completely optional. Stir and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes on medium low heat, allowing the sauce to thicken and flavors to marry.

Bechamel Time! Make the roux. Add flour and butter in med heat pan and cook until it looks like........

........This. The flour has been cooked and the roux is a little brown.

Add milk and grate 1 clove or more garlic. Your preference.

Freshly grated nutmeg, about 1/4 tsp. Allow to simmer and stir often to prevent sticking. Cook until sauce has thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Start with a ladle of meat sauce.

Layer 1- No boil noodles and white sauce.

Layer 2- Red sauce, mozzarella and parmesan.

Alternate layers for 4 to 5 layers. Last layer mix white & red sauce

 

I topped it with the Rupert cheese, but normally I would cover it with mozzarella. Bake at 375F

Very saucy and creamy!! Enjoy!

Ingredients & Road Map:

Red & White Lasagna - yields 8-10 servings

Red Sauce:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
1-2 cloves, grated
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tbsp each of basil, thyme & oregano
1 28oz can crushed tomato
1/4- 1/3 cup brown sugar (optional)
Oil for cooking

1. Add oil to a high wall skillet. Brown onions and garlic, add salt & pepper.  Once veggies have softened and brown add ground beef, season with salt and pepper. Brown beef.

2. Once beef is brown and caramelized add dried herbs, Worcestershire sauce and crushed tomatoes. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Had 1/4-1/3 cup brown sugar, totally optional. Simmer on medium low heat for 10 -15 minutes until sauce thickens. Season to taste.

Bechamel (White Sauce):

4 Tbsp Butter
3 1/2 Tbsp Flour
3 cups milk, room temperature or warmed (best results)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1-2 small garlic clove, grated or roasted garlic.

1. Make a roux. Add butter and flour to a medium sized pot. Cook for 2-3 minutes to ensure the four is cooked.

2. Add milk to roux and whisk until smooth.

3. Add freshly grated nutmeg and garlic. Allow to simmer and stir often to prevent sticking. Cook
    until sauce has thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lasagna Layering:

1 box Barilla No Boil noodles (Oven Ready)
1 Recipe of Red Meat Sauce
1 Recipe of Bechamel (White Sauce)
4 - 8 oz of Mozzarella
4-6 oz parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Add one ladle of red meat sauce into a 9x13 casserole dish.

2. Place 3-4 Oven Ready noodles. Add 1 ladle of white sauce, making sure to cover each noodles for even cooking.

3. Add 1 ladle of red meat sauce. Top with mozzarella and paremsan. Alternate red and white with
    the next 4-5 layers. Top last layer with both sauces and mozzarella and parmesan.

4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 minutes,
    allowing  the cheese to brown and bubble.

5. Allow the lasagna to rest for 5 -10 minutes. Cut and serve. Enjoy!

Pasta Carbonara

 My hubby's favorite cuisine is Italian. He loves spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, ravioli, tortellini, particularly any pasta dish. He had never had carbonara. This is a crime. He needed to try this deliciously creamy dish. One of the many things I love about carbonara is that you don't need tons of ingredients. Spaghetti, garlic, bacon, parmesan and eggs are the basics. Traditionally in place of bacon is pancetta, but I love the smokiness of the bacon. The other liberty I've taken is added cilantro in place of parsley. I'm Latina and I love cilantro, it's my parsley, but feel free to use what you like, that's the best part of cooking you get to be creative!  

Regardless of what herb or bacon you use this dish is the most decadent plate of pastas I've had. I recently got the opportunity to visit Rome, bucket list check, and had the pleasure of tasting Carbonara in it's home country and it was amazing! This recipe brings me back.

Carbonara is a simple dish with a bit of technique, nothing hard I promise.  Just follow the road map and you to will find yourself in Rome.

Buen Provecho!

Spaghetti

garlic, 1-2 cloves

Egg Mixture, eggs, parmesan, salt, pepper

The best sound, crisping bacon.

Lovely bits of goodness.

Creamy Carbonara. Yum!!

Pasta Carbonara: yields 4 serving

Ingredients:

1lb spaghetti
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup Parmesan, grated
1-2 garlic, minced
4-5 slices of bacon, chopped
handful of Cilantro & Parsley, chopped
Salt n Pepper to taste

Road Map:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

2.  Place a small pan over medium heat. Crisp up bacon and drain bacon on paper towel. Reserve bacon fat.

3. When water comes to a roaring boil add a handful salt and spaghetti. This is your only chance to season the spaghetti. Cook until al dente,  about 7-10 minutes.

4. In a bowl mix eggs, Parmesan, salt, pepper and herbs. Set aside.

5. Once spaghetti is done, reserve 1 cup of spaghetti water, drain pasta.

6. With a microplane grate garlic to pan with bacon fat, careful not to burn garlic. You only want to infuse fat with garlic.

7. Add spaghetti to bacon fat making sure to cover each strain with bacon fat. Remove from heat. 

8. Whisk a 1/4 cup of reserved pasta water to eggs, this tempers the eggs to avoid scrambled eggs.

9. Add egg mixture into spaghetti and coat. Add reserved bacon & serve.

10. Sprinkle chopped herbs & extra parmesan if you like.

11. Enjoy!! Buen Provecho!