Pea and Parsley Pesto

I’ve been so lazy lately. It’s the heat. It’s even too hot to go swimming! 

The last couple of weeks we have received shelling peas from our CSA. I’ve never been a big fan of peas so I wasn’t sure what to do with them. One day on the Food Network I heard someone say pea pesto. A light bulb went off—what about parsley-pea pesto!? We have a small garden at my mom's house and the parsley was ripe for the picking. We didn’t put it on pasta or on a crostini. Instead we put it on a pizza and added some diced kalamata olives and parmesan cheese. The combination of the olives with the pesto was very satisfying and so fresh. It tasted like summer.To die for! 

Here is the recipe:

Pea and Parsley Pesto

2 cups (you can use frozen if you need to) peas

1 cup packed fresh parsley leaves

1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted (I toss them in a frying pan over medium heat until they brown—be careful though because they can burn quickly)

2/3 cup grated Parmesan

3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Coarse salt and ground pepper

Cook peas for 3-4 minutes in boiling water. If using frozen peas follow instructions on bag. In a food processor, combine cooked peas, parsley, pine nuts, Parmesan, and garlic. Pulse until a paste forms. With machine running, slowly add oil, and process until blended; season with salt and pepper.

Poof you’re done. Now see, that didn’t take you more than 5 minutes to make, did it!? You can do this! It’s so easy and so fast and there are soooooooo many things you can do with this pesto.

Like I said, we made a pizza with it. I bought pizza dough in a packet (I know, I should make my own dough but it scares me!) I prebaked the crust for about 8-9 minutes and then spread the pesto all over the crust. I added chopped up kalamata olives, sprinkled it with parmesan cheese and tossed it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. It was so good! 

You can use this on pasta, over chicken, or even add a dollop in some soup. The next time I do this I’m going to grill some French bread and then rub it with some garlic and put the pesto and cheese on top. Yum! What a nice little appetizer! 

The night before we made the pesto we grilled up a couple of skewers. It too was very simple. O cut up the sirloin, green pepper, and onion and tossed it on the grill. It was perfect. To accompany this wonderful meal we grilled zucchini which we also got from our CSA. I basted this with a bit of olive oil, melted butter, garlic, and parsley. And again it was divine.

Enjoy!