Anyone you reads this blog regularly will know I like pesto, pistou and all those gorgeous green sauces that are easy to make, taste great and do you the power of good. Just lately though I got a wee bit carried away on the pesto front and found myself making all sorts of different types. Challenging myself to come up with new recipe ideas, scouring the shops for ingredients and then doing some serious kitchen crafting and mixing and matching to create all manner of pestos. I didn’t just stop at the shops though, I grabbed herbs from the garden and forraged in the hedgerows too. Nowhere was safe from my pesto hunting.
My passion for pesto had become a bit of an obsession. My freezer is testament to this fact as it fairly groans under the weight of all those pesto packets, sweet, savoury, fruity, veggie, they are all there, all packed with flavour and all delicious.
Idgy posed this question a few months ago – “Are you doing another book or just over-eating?”
She had a point, my pesto passion was getting a bit out of hand and the freezer was full to overflowing. My poor daughter was sick to death of having pesto dished up at almost every meal, I was in my cook’n’book mode and nothing could stop me. Oh heck, might as well use my pesto recipes to make an eBook, so that’s what I’m doing, my pesto is a work in progress.
Here is just one of the more than 75 recipes in the book, this is my Apple, Celery and Coriander Pesto, light and zesty it takes it’s lead from the world famous Waldorf Salad and is packed with flavour and just perfect for summer when you want light sauces to mingle with your mains. Try this with a simple chicken sandwich or on the side of a quiche, anywhere that a bit of light, fruity and spicy flavouring could lift things up and tickle your taste buds.
Apple Celery And Coriander Pesto
2 tbsp chopped walnuts 1 red skinned eating apple2 sticks celery
2 tbsp chopped coriander
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for just a couple of minutes until they release that gorgeous nutty aroma. Don’t get side-tracked when you do this as these little beauties can catch very quickly and go from toasty tastiness to burnt offerings within seconds!
Core the apple but don’t peel it as the little flecks of red skin look pretty and the skin is full of vitamins too.
Chop the celery and toss this into a food processor along with the apple and the coriander leaves.
Season with salt and pepper and whizz that processor till you get a lovely bright green paste.
Drizzle in the olive oil a little at a time until you get the consistancy you prefer. If I were mixing this with pasta I would add more oil for a looser sauce, when serving with a sandwich I add less oil for a firmer sauce that won’t drip everywhere.
Spoon your pesto into a small jar with a lid and top with a little more oil to seal and stop the herbs oxidising and darkening in colour. Store in the fridge for up to a week.
A Passion For Pesto will be available soon!
You’ll find revcipes for a multitude of herb pestos, veggie pestos and sweet pestos too made from fruits with agave nectar/honey instead of oil. You will also find lots of information on pesto itself, buying and storing the ingredients and recipes and ideas on how to use all this wonderful pesto once you’ve been bitten by the bug and can’t stop making it.
Pesto is tasty, healthy and so easy to make, the varieties are almost endless and it’s uses extraordinary.
Have a great day.
Karon x
- 2 tbsp chopped walnuts
- 1 red skinned eating apple
- 2 sticks celery
- 2 tbsp chopped coriander
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
- Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for just a couple of minutes until they release that gorgeous nutty aroma. Don't get side-tracked when you do this as these little beauties can catch very quickly and go from toasty tastiness to burnt offerings within seconds!
- Core the apple but don't peel it as the little flecks of red skin look pretty and the skin is full of vitamins too.
- Chop the celery and toss this into a food processor along with the apple and the coriander leaves.
- Season with salt and pepper and whizz that processor till you get a lovely bright green paste.
- Drizzle in the olive oil a little at a time until you get the consistancy you prefer. If I were mixing this with pasta I would add more oil for a looser sauce, when serving with a sandwich I add less oil for a firmer sauce that won't drip everywhere.
- Spoon your pesto into a small jar with a lid and top with a little more oil to seal and stop the herbs oxidising and darkening in colour. Store in the fridge for up to a week.
This looks wonderful Karon and right up my street
… oh and I was only 26 away
I’ve never thought about adding apple to pesto. Sounds and looks yummy though.