Arugula Pesto

Arugula pesto is the final touch to the Farm Stand Tomato soup. A little dollop of pesto adds some nice color blocking, using red and green. Or, serve this soup at a Christmas dinner and you’ve made a festive little creation. The pesto also goes well over grilled chicken, pasta, and even as a spread for homemade pizza.

Now, as a side note, I hardly ever cook using exact measurements. In fact, I despise exact measurements and prefer to use them as guidelines. Therefore, I like to share my recipes in handfuls. No wonder I have so many baking disasters!

Ingredients: 

3 handfuls of baby arugula

1 handful of pine nuts

1/3 cup olive oil (never go cheap on olive oil)

1/3 cup shaved parmesan cheese

juice from 1 squeezed lemon

Directions:

Add arugula, pine nuts, parmesan, and lemon juice to the blender, Vitamix, or Cuisinart. Slowly add the olive oil and begin blending on a low setting. Once all of the olive oil is added, speed up the setting so that the nuts are finely ground and a smooth texture forms.

Pesto is all about making adjustments. Add more arugula if it is too thin and more olive oil if it is too thick. For a creamier pesto, add extra parmesan cheese. Or, you can even add a little cream. Why not?

Oh, and did you make too much pesto the first time you tried this recipe? I sure did. Guess what, you can freeze pesto and it keeps very nicely.