I honestly cannot recall where this book came from. It has been sitting in (one of) my stacks of ‘cookbooks to look through’ for a while and, well, both of us finally looked through it and found quite a lot of interesting stuff to try.
For a first run, my husband asked to try the savory waffles, which were suggested to go with this pesto.
I’ll cover my version of the waffles tomorrow, but for today, let’s talk pesto!
INGREDIENTS
•2 roasted red peppers
•1/4 cup walnuts
•1 cup basil leaves
•4 cloves garlic
•2 tbsp chives
•1/2 cup olive oil
•2 tbsp orange juice
•2 tbsp half and half
•1 tbsp honey
•1/4 tsp Seasoned Salt
•1/4 tsp black pepper
•1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
Note: you can, of course, buy fresh red peppers, then roast and peel them yourself at home. I chose to open a trusty jar of Mezzetta roasted peppers.
The authors of this book called for making this pesto in a food processor, but I have this new and kinda spiffy blender that does just about everything but wash the windows (though wouldn’t that be nice). It worked a treat and I am very pleased with the texture of the finished pesto, so, go ahead and try your blender. The worst that could happen is that you need to transfer it all to your processor to properly finish and you’ll have an extra appliance to wash.
But… you bought that jar of already roasted peppers, so that is one big step saved, right?
Add all of the ingredients to the bowl of your blender – or food processor fitted with the metal blade – and pulse until almost smooth.
I ended up with a pint of the good stuff; more than enough to enjoy with our savory waffles and pulled pork, and then to stir into refried black beans for a taco pizza a few nights later.
I suppose that you could pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze it, then pop the cubes into a zipper bag to have on hand whenever you might need a bit of roasted pepper pesto goodness for those refried beans or waffles or chicken or pasta or salmon or ???