Asparagus Pesto Pizza

Sometimes I make something that sounds and looks good, but is less than awesome.  Other times, I make something that tastes much better than it looks.  And then, on very rare occasions, I manage to throw something together that looks pretty good, but which has a taste far beyond what I would have imagined.  This Asparagus Pesto Pizza?  It falls into the final category, friends, and I don’t mind telling you that it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve put into my mouth in recent memory.

The recipe we used is a variation on the one Bobby Flay offers here, but with walnuts instead of pine nuts.  When combined with the basil, grilled asparagus, romano cheese, olive oil and garlic, the resulting flavor is earthy, rich and satisfying, with a heady aroma that contrasts nicely with the sun-dried tomatoes we used as a simple topping.

I started by grilling the asparagus on a grill pan with a bit of olive oil and salt. After these took on a bit of color, I pureed them in a food processor with the basil, garlic, walnuts, olive oil and salt.  When this was combined, I emptied the mixture into a bowl and stirred in the grated romano cheese.

Josh made the crust from scratch, but you could easily use a store-bought crust.  After he pre-baked it on the pizza stone for a few minutes, we spread it with the pesto, and topped it with sliced sun-dried tomatoes and just a bit of mozzarella and parmesan.  We then finished baking the whole thing in the oven, and served it with a simple salad.

I am not at all exaggerating when I tell you that this pesto is out-of-control amazing.  Seriously, I would strongly suggest that you consider stopping what you’re doing and getting the ingredients to make it now.  As a bonus, this recipe makes far more pesto than you could possibly eat in one sitting (or even on one or two pizzas), and keeps well in the fridge–though if you’re anything like us, you’ll have eaten the rest within a couple of days.  We also used it as a sauce for corkscrew pasta, and ate it on toast (though you could also put it on grilled eggplant or use it as a dip for crudites).  Affordable spring asparagus only happens so often, so take advantage of it while you can–and with a recipe like this, the veg-phobes in your life don’t have to be left out.

Quiche and Risotto (A Pantry Love Story)

Since coming back from the holidays, Josh and I have made it our personal mission to limit going out for dinner (to save on cash) and going out in general (to save on booty-freezing).  When there’s a perpetual layer of slush outside your door and sub-zero temperatures between you and the grocery store, you (I, anyway) limit the trips you do take outside the house to the absolutely essential.

Thus, we have engaged in quite a bit of the “what can we make from this” game of late, and this was one of the more successful results.  We had a leftover frozen pie crust from a holiday pumpkin pie endeavor, as well as arborio rice and a few extra odds and ends.  The risotto was a no-brainer, as we also had sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, garlic, white wine and stock–everything you need.

The quiche was somewhat less obvious, since we didn’t have cream (which is typically required for quiche) or spinach or cheese, which are favorite fillings of mine.  We did, however, have milk and broccoli, so we set to work constructing something that perhaps only posed as quiche, but which was delicious nevertheless.  We started by baking the frozen crust in the oven for about 10 minutes on its own, and sauteing chopped broccoli with finely diced yellow onions, thyme and Tony’s.  We also mixed together about 5 eggs and a quarter cup of milk with salt and pepper in a separate bowl.

When the crust finished its preliminary baking, we put in the broccoli and onion mixture, then poured over the egg mixture and put it back in the oven to bake about half an hour. While that was cooking, we finished the risotto (stir, stir, add some broth, stir some more, etc.) and got started on the bottle of wine we’d opened for cooking.   (Yes, you must follow this step.)

It’s true that the egg-and-milk-over-veggies method here makes this a little more like a frittata than a true quiche, but the richness of the crust is enough to fool you into thinking otherwise, and more than makes up for the lack of cheese.  Of course, if you HAVE cheese without going out into the frozen tundra, by all means, use it.  I’m just sayin.  You can make something tasty even without it–and that goes for the risotto too, which was still rich and creamy from the butter and pine nuts, even without the Parmesan cheese I typically add at the end.  And, bonus: if you make the risotto without wine (but seriously, why would you want to?), the whole thing is ridiculously cheap to make.

The Garden (Mediocrity) Project: Marginal Success!

Well, I thought for sure our minimal efforts at gardening were all for naught last week when the ice began falling before we’d harvested anything.  BUT, it turns out that Collard Greens are some hardy little buggers, and Josh and I had a lovely harvest this weekend after all. 

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries just before cooking, so we don’t have photos of the finished product (or, for that matter, an in-focus picture of the fresh greens).  Nevertheless, I wanted to let you know about our successful meal, in an effort to quell any ongoing suspense over the status of (what was previously known as) The Garden (Futility?) Project.

Josh was in charge of cooking the Collards, and he did a really wonderful job, using a recipe from Ina Garten.  We’ve found that hers are almost always delicious, even if they tend to get a little heavy on the butter.  This one was no different, cooking the greens in butter, onion, and garlic, with a bit of apple cider vinegar and vegetable stock.

To go with the greens, I made a mushroom and sun-dried tomato risotto, which I thought turned out really well (the photo at right isn’t of my risotto, but of one like it, since my camera was out of commission).  To make the risotto, I started by sauteing a bit of onion and garlic in a combination of butter and olive oil.  I then added a bunch of sliced crimini mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, which I had previously soaked in hot water.  To that I added the arborio rice, and, little by little, stirred in vegetable stock, wine, salt and pepper until the rice was just al dente.  The risotto was a great match for the Collards–though I’m sure we’re over the limit on butter for the week.  I’m calling it even, since we avoided the typical Collard Greens cooking medium: lots and lots of pork fat.

Pasta with White Wine Cream Sauce

Things have been busy at the Philosophers’ house of late, so we haven’t had much time to cook anything worth sharing with you.  Last night, however, after a day of hard work (and a little fun), we decided it was high time for something delicious–but only if it were also simple and quick.

It was thus that we happened upon this simple-looking pasta dish, which packs quite a bit of flavor.

Don’t be deceived by its everyday looks; this pasta is much tastier than you might imagine.  It’s filled with great veggies, of course–peppers, onions, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes–but the real secret (as they say) is in the sauce.  It’s actually just a simple béchamel to start out–I whisk together equal amounts of melted butter and flour to form a roux, then gradually whisk in milk until it’s smooth and creamy.  This time, though, I substituted about a half a cup of Chardonnay for some of the milk, which gives the sauce a really nice hint of sweetness and acid, adding some complexity to what would otherwise just be a straightforwardly dairy taste.

I cooked the veggies in the sauce, and tossed the finished pasta in with it to coat.  I’m also a big fan of the combination of cream sauce and sun-dried tomatoes; the intensity of flavor adds a nice punch to the richness.  So in the end, this dish isn’t too complicated, but is definitely not your average meal.  And as a bonus–if you have things like wine and flour on hand, it only costs about $4 to make.