Pesto love
Good morning,
Usually when meal planning, we plan our dinners and we spontaneously do impromptu lunches, which mostly include heating up dinner leftovers. However, with the current lockdown, kinder being closed, and having M at home, we need to be more explicit and have a plan for what we're having for lunch each day. Getting a variety of good healthy food on the table can sometimes take a bit of time. And with schools and kinders closed, we have even less time for meal preparation. The way we solve this problem is having a weekly meal plan and by prepping as much as we can beforehand. One example of that is making pesto.
One of the things I like about making pesto is that it doesn't always have to be the traditional pesto alla genovese. Pesto is basically a combination of the main flavour ingredient (in the traditional pesto that would be basil leaves), some nuts, garlic, and fat (olive oil, cheese). Alternative pesto recipes that I like include a cherry tomatoes and almonds pesto (see below), red capsicum (peppers) and cashews pesto, lemony kale pesto, or even a pesto from broad beans.
Yesterday, we got a veggie box, which usually includes lots and lots of leafy greens, and pesto is one way I like to use these up. So I made a pesto from carrot greens and now that it is made, we can use it during the week to make a quick lunch, either as a pasta sauce or as a spread in a tasty sandwich. And making lunch will only take as long as it takes to cook the pasta 🙂
Speaking of lots and lots of greens, I went looking for a greens lasagna, and found a pesto and ricota lasagna that I now must try.
Here are this week's recipe suggestions for you to try:
- Crumpets, or if you have sourdough discards, here's a sourdough version. We tend to have these with cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers, pickled red onions, and chives. Think a bagel on a crumpet.
- Bubble and Squeak by Jamie Oliver. We enjoyed it so much that yesterday we made its winter version with Brussels sprouts, chestnuts, mushrooms, and sweet potato
- Pumpkin and sage in brown butter pasta -- which would work beautifully with fresh gnocchi (see next suggestion)
- Potato gnocchi by Johnny Di Francesco
- Cherry tomatoes and almonds pesto
- 200g cherry tomatoes, fresh or lightly roasted
- 30g blanched almonds (1/2 cup)
- 12g basil leaves
- 50g grated cheese, preferably Pecorino Romano, or Parmigiano-Reggiano, or a mix of these two cheeses. If you wish to make a dairy-free option, replace the cheese with some nutritional yeast.
- 2 cloves garlic
- Salt to taste
- 30g olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
- How to? put all the ingredients in a food processor and process until you get to your desired consistency.
Our meal plan from last week can be found at: https://foodfamily.app/public/meal_plans/4fe10c2c-9c68-40d1-a12c-c5b307d6d5d0
Once again, please let us know if you make any of these recipes, how you found them, what you changed, or just drop us an email to say hi.
Thanks and see you next week,
Elle, Lachlan, M, Ginger, and Edward