pesto pasta and roasted garlic thyme chicken

I've covered these both before (pesto here and here, and chicken here) but just in case you needed to be reminded that these recipes are there for the taking...

pesto chicken salad with bacon, tomatoes and garlic croutons

Yet another winner from my favorite new cookbook of the summer, "Raising the Salad Bar." With all the fresh basil at the farmers market, I made up a double batch of pesto for a couple different meals (the other pasta dish to follow soon). If you have a food processor, some basil, garlic, parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil, you can make pesto in about 3 minutes (see previous post here). This recipe combines some chopped cooked chicken with a pesto + mayo dressing, then tossed with fresh tomatoes, bacon, and croutons. The book's version doesn't do it this way, but I also mixed all the ingredients with some mixed greens (the dressing coats all the lettuce surprising well, without having to add extra) for a "true" salad.

Grocery list: 2 cups cooked chicken, 1.5 cups quartered cherry tomatoes, 1/4 cup mayo, 1/4 cup pesto, 4-5 slices bacon (cooked and chopped), garlic salt, a few slices bread for croutons.



You could certainly use store-bought croutons to make this recipe even faster, but homemade croutons are SO much better. They really don't take any time at all - you can cook them while you're prepping the rest of the salad. Remove the crusts from your bread, cut into bite-size pieces, and toss with a few T of olive oil and garlic salt. Either toast on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees (turning occasionally), or in a large skillet over medium heat.



Mix the pesto and mayo together, then toss with the chicken.



Add to a large salad bowl with the mixed greens, and toss to coat everything with the dressing. Stir in the crumbled bacon and cherry tomatoes, season with salt and pepper.



Divide into bowls (this could make enough for 3 meal-size salads), then top with the croutons.

more fun with homemade pasta: fettuccine alla trapanese

I think I'm starting to make some good progress with homemade pasta... This time, I went back to my new favorite obsession (Jamie's Italy) for inspiration. Jamie describes this as the Trapanese method for making pesto sauce (although Marcella Hazan vehemently denies that pesto can be made with anything other than pine nuts, olive oil, basil, and parmesan). It was delicious, although I was more proud of how the fettuccine turned out - finally, I was able to make a batch without any real problems!

Grocery list: 1 pound dried spaghetti (I used 1 pound fresh fettuccine), 5 oz almonds, 1 clove garlic, 4 handfuls fresh basil leaves, 5 oz freshly grated parmesan, 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, halved.



In a food processor, you crush the almonds until they are a coarse powder, then pulse in the garlic (I used 2 or 3 cloves instead of 1) and the basil, then add in the parmesan. While pulsing the food processor, stream in olive oil steadily till it is the right consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Hand crush the tomatoes into the pesto sauce. Cook the pasta and mix everything together in a large serving bowl.

easy pesto

With the grilled chicken and vegetables the other night, I made a quick side of pesto pasta. I realized I didn't cover that in the recipe, but it's so simple and delicious and basil is starting to be so abundant right now, I figured I should blog this... There are a million ways to make pesto, but this is my standard.

Grocery list: basil, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic.



In a food processor, pulse a few peeled garlic cloves and 1/4 cup pine nuts. Add about 1 cup of washed fresh basil leaves (make sure you pat them dry with a towel first), pulse for a few seconds. Then add 1/4 cup parmesan, pulse, and then with the processor running, slowly pour in 1/4 cup of olive oil, or until it is a thick creamy consistency.

Cook whatever pasta you have on hand, and stir in the room temperature pesto. The amount above will work for about 1/2 pound of pasta.