Sunday, February 20, 2011

Pesto


I’ve been a little slack with my posting this week, but I’d like to just put it out there that Max and I are cleansing. This may sound weird to some of you, but we do it 4 times a year and as torturess as it sounds, we always feel much better after doing it!
Anyway we started on Monday and are finally through the worst of it (sugar cravings, no energy etc..). Because I am unable to eat certain things, I have spent the last 6 days focusing on what to cook day to day.
The things I will try to cook this week are;
Páte – which I have never attempted — but LOVE. (my mum used to make it when we were little)
Summer vegetable soup
And stewed apples with berries (you'd be amazed how good this tastes when your not allowed anything sweet)
Oh and stock.
I’ve also been without camera this week as Max has been working, but I’m happy to say I am getting my own camera. Fingers crossed it will arrives this week — so excited!!


Anyway we can eat pesto on our cleanse, not with pasta but with chicken or fish so I thought why not? Simple, I know, but we like simple!
I have 2 variations on pesto and here they are;


Traditional-(my traditional)
1 large bunch of basil washed and de-leaved
1 handful of toasted pine nuts
1 cup full of finely grated parmesan
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon of agave
1 garlic clove – minced
salt and pepper
enough good extra virgin olive oil to combine

Agave

or
My other version;
1 bunch of rocket (from our garden)
½  bunch of basil (the same as above)
1 handful of almonds (for our cleanse we soak our almonds over night then dry them out in a very low oven, for 24hours)
1 cup of best quality organic parmesan (I use a buffalo milk parmesan) finely grated
A squeeze of lemon
1 – 2 cloves of garlic (I love garlic so I use 2)
A teaspoon of agave (but only after week two of our cleanse)
Salt and pepper
And lastly Nolans Road extra virgin olive oil

 How I make it;

Pop the leaves into a whizzer (food processor)
Then add the nuts and garlic and then blitz,
Add lemon, agave, salt and pepper (not to much you can adjust once finished)
Then the cheese and oil
Whizz till it is paste consistency

This is what it looks like before the oil

Store 1/2 in a jar, covered well with olive oil and then pop the other 1/2 into Pyrex container and freeze.




This is delicious spread on toast with sliced tomato, mixed with pasta and a spoonful of ricotta or pasta with green beans and potato and then mix in the pesto (I think this is called ‘pesto alla Genovese’?) both are great for school lunch boxes, mixed through an omelette with goats cheese or a dollop in a bowl of vegetable soup mmmm…


This is the perfect consistency
©Michelle Schoeps 2013
All photos taken by Michelle Schoeps

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