Easy and Declicious Pesto - Italian Style

Harvesting time is here and I have an overwhelming abundance of basil!This awesome herb is easily one of my favorites I always grow a healthy amount of it each year. The only problem I have with basil is it can't be dried. I know you see the dried stuff at the grocery store, but in reality basil is one herb that is much, much better fresh. Such a pity. So how do I preserve my basil harvest for use in the winter? I either freeze it by itself (chop it and mix it with either olive oil or water) or I make some large batches of pesto.

Pesto can be super easy to make, but I do think it's helpful to have a good recipe for it. I've tried numerous recipes, including making my own and have had plenty of disappointments in the process. Most basil pestos use the same ingredients; basil, olive oil, garlic, salt and parmesan cheese. However the proportion of each ingredient can make a real difference in your end flavor.


Below I've shared with you my favorite pesto recipe. It's from the fabulous cookbook Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan (recipe is on page 176). If you love Italian food, this is a wonderful cookbook to have on your shelf. She shares authentic Italian recipes, not the America Italian dishes we've become accustomed to in the US. There hasn't been a recipe I've tried in this cookbook that I haven't loved.


Ideally for the best flavor and most authentic Italian style pesto, you'd make this recipe with a mortar and pestle, but most of us don't have the time or the tools to do this, so instead I used my food processor.


What You'll Need: for 6 servings
2 cups tightly packed fresh basis leaves - washed and thoroughly dry
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp. pine nuts
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
sea salt
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 tbsp. freshly grated romano cheese
3 tbsp. softened, room temperature butter


Getting Started:
1.  Place basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and a large pinch of salt in your food processor. Process until you have a creamy, uniformed consistency.

2. Transfer basil mixture to a medium size bowl and by hand, mix in your parmigiano-reggiano and romano cheeses. Marcella writes, "It is worth the slight effort to do it by hand to obtain the notably superior texture it produces."


3. Last step is to mix in the softened butter.

Like many, my favorite way to enjoy pesto is on pasta with shrimp. For this recipe you'd use about 1 1/2 pounds of pasta and as much shrimp as you want. I like around 2 lbs. If you aren't accustomed to cooking shrimp, I think the biggest mistake people make is over cooking it. Smaller shrimp only take about 2 minutes to cook, so have your pasta and pesto ready before cooking them. For this recipe, I heated in my cast iron skillet a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. I tossed in my shelled and deveined shrimp and cooked them on one side until they began to turn pink about half way up the sides. I flipped them over and cooked then cooked them until they were all pink. This only took about another minute. If you overcook shrimp, you end up with a rubbery texture, which is not so enjoyable.

Toss you shrimp in with your hot pasta and pesto and enjoy! 

Oh, one note, if you are freezing your pesto you don't want to add your butter or cheese until you thaw it and are ready to eat it, so just do step one. I like to freeze my pesto in ice cube trays, then once frozen, transfer it to freezer storage bags. 

 

Creamy Clam Chowder

I love clam chowder. It's one of those perfect cool/cold weather dishes to enjoy, especially by a cozy fire. When you are chopping your ingredients, try to keep the celery, bacon and potatoes close to the same size and no bigger then about 1/4" - 1/3". This helps everything cook at the same rate and gives you a better end consistency. The onion and parsley can be chopped more finely, since they are there simply to impart flavor and not texture.


What You'll Need - serves 4

• 1/2 cup or about 4 slices of bacon chopped into small pieces
• Medium white onion diced
• 4 tablespoons white flour
• 2 celery stalks, chopped into small pieces
• 3 medium yellow or red potatoes, skins on, that's where the vitamins are
• 2 cups of organic whole milk
• 1 10 ounce can of baby clams with liquid - you could easily do 2 cans of baby clams if you like to have clams in every bite
• 8 ounces of clam juice
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• Salt
• Pepper

• 3 quart pot, preferably with a heavy bottom

Getting Started

Over medium-high heat cook your bacon pieces in your soup pot. Once bacon has browned and most of the fat has been released, add your onions and saute for several minutes until they have softened and are becoming translucent. Stir them often so they don't become overly browned or burnt. Add your chopped celery and saute for a minute or two, then add the flour. Stir and cook the flour consistently for 2-3 minutes.


Next add the liquid from your clams, the clam juice, milk and potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are soft and the soup has thickened. This should take roughly 20 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of cooking add your parsley, clams and season with salt and pepper.



Serve immediately and enjoy! This is a meal all on it's own or add a delicious piece of warm bread with butter and a salad. The kids will love it too, at least my 2 year old does!



If you save this soup, you'll likely have to thin it some when reheating. Heat it in a pot on the stove and add a couple tablespoons of milk and you should get a nice creamy consistency. Make sure to stir it often when reheating so you don't accidentally burn the bottom.

Delicious Salmon Cakes

It's winter, and if you live as far North as I do, then you've got a ways to go before spring flowers and green leaves are included in your vocabulary again. It's about this time each year that I begin to think about how much I wish I lived further south, especially when I start hearing about people getting gardens ready. Oh well, if I can't live in a warm climate, I might as well enjoy a light and summer-like food dish!

That's what these salmon cakes are for me. They are refreshing and delicious. The addition of lemon peel and some hot sauce on the side trick the taste buds into thinking they're eating summertime food and at least for a moment I'm able to imagine that it's actually in the 70's instead of the 20's! : - )

You could easily make these salmon cakes with fresh cooked salmon, but this isn't usually the best time of year for purchasing wild-caught salmon, so instead I'm using canned salmon. All the rest of the ingredients are easy to come by, no matter the time of year.



What You'll Need: 6 salmon cakes

• 1 can, approximately 14 ounces of salmon
• 1/2 cup finely-diced onion
• 1/4 cup finely-chopped parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• Zest of one lemon
• 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups fresh bread crumbs
• 2 eggs, beaten
  
• Oil for cooking salmon cakes in, I used unrefined coconut oil and it was delicious
• Ketchup - for sauce
• Mayonnaise - for sauce
• Sriracha hot sauce - for sauce
• Lemon slices - for topping salmon cakes
  
• Diced fresh tomato - for topping salmon cakes
  

• 2 forks
• Large mixing bowl
• 1/2 cup measuring cup
• Large frying pan
• Plate with a couple pieces paper towel on it
• Spatula

Getting Started

Drain the canned salmon of all liquid and then place in bowl and using two forks, gently flake or break up the salmon until it's in relatively small pieces. Add onion, parsley, salt, garlic and onion powder, lemon zest and eggs. Mix all the ingredients together. Go gentle here, you don't want to turn you salmon into mush because you were mixing it too much. You just want to make sure all your ingredients are evenly dispersed. Finally, add 1 1/4 cup of the fresh bread crumbs and again mix until well incorporated. I used some fresh sourdough bread (see previous post) which I turned into bread crumbs using my food processor. Any fresh bread crumb should work.




Measure out 6 half cup portions of salmon mixture. Using your hands press and shape each portion into a 3/4" thick salmon cake. Place the extra 1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs onto a plate and coat each salmon cake in the crumbs.



Pour enough oil into frying pan to come 1/3 of the way up on the salmon cakes, so about 1/4" deep. Heat oil over medium high heat to not quite smoking. You don't want to fry the cakes too quickly or you'll be left with a cold interior, but you also don't want them to sit and absorb a ton of oil. Cooking them at medium high works well on my stove.

Fry for 3-5 minutes, until golden and then flip and fry the other side the same way. Remove salmon cakes with a spatula and place on a plate covered with paper towel. If you have to cook the salmon cakes in more than one batch, place cooked ones into a preheated 200-degree oven so they don't get cold.


While salmon cakes are cooking, you can whip together an extremely simple sauce for them.
Mix 1 tablespoon ketchup, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and 1/2+ teaspoon of Sriracha hot sauce. Actually use as much hot sauce as your taste buds like. If you aren't a hot and spicy fan, either don't add the hot sauce or just a couple drops at a time until it reaches your desired heat level. An FYI, if you haven't used Sriracha hot sauce before, depending on how it's used, a little bit can go a long way.

Finally, for a little extra splash of color and freshness, place a small amount of diced tomatoes
on top of your salmon cakes when you serve them. Enjoy!!!