Arugula Pesto

One of my favorite new green things of spring is arugula. (You may see it under other names, including rocket, which is just cool.) Its long, narrow, curvy leaves can range from peppery to downright bitter. It makes a great salad, especially when mixed with other tender lettuces that tame its strength a little. Arugula also grows easily from seed, even in containers, which means I can grow some on my porch. It also seems to prefer the cooler weather (just like me) so, if you’re on the ball with your spring planting, it can be one of the first things in the garden that’s ready to eat.


A couple years ago, I tried a recipe for a pesto sauce made with arugula and kalamata olives. It was delicious. The nutty, peppery bitterness of the arugula was well balanced by the briny olives. I’d been thinking about that recipe ever since. Recently, when I had a little arugula I had grown myself, plus a nice bunch that had been grown locally, I found out why I hadn’t made arugula pesto a second time. I had lost the recipe.

Since I have a pretty firm grasp of the theory of pesto (I make basil pesto every summer), and I remembered the two most important ingredients (fresh arugula and kalamata olives), I was able to put together something that was probably pretty close to the original. I included some toasted almonds to give the sauce body. Walnuts would probably be just as good, if not even better. I also added some flat leaf parsley to tame the arugula a bit, and whirled everything together in the food processor with some decent extra virgin olive oil. The result was pretty close to the original recipe or at least close to what I can remember, which is close enough.

I not only served this sauce with pasta, but I also stirred some into a pan of white beans simmered with garlic (about 1/3 cup in 3 cups of beans). I topped both dishes with crumbled feta cheese, which tasted like it was born to be there. This pesto probably could be spread on garlic bread or sandwiches, or maybe even whisked into a vinaigrette served over milder salad greens or spring vegetables. Or how about potatoes? Well, the pesto will last for a few days in the refrigerator (I haven’t tried freezing it, but that might work, too), so I can try them all. Then, if I can get my hands on some more arugula, I can try some more! And since the recipe is now recorded here, I should never lose it again!

Arugula Pesto with Kalamata Olives

1/3 cup chopped almonds
2 cups (loosely packed) arugula leaves, any tough stems trimmed
1 cup (loosely packed) parsley leaves and tender stems
¼ cup pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
¾ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Place the almonds in a small skillet over medium heat. Heat, stirring often, until just beginning to brown. Be very careful not to burn them. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

2. Place the cooled almonds in a food processor and pulse until coarsely but evenly ground.

3. Add the arugula, parsley, olives, salt and pepper to the food processor. Process until everything is well ground into a coarse paste.


4. With the processor running, slowly add the olive oil and process until completely smooth. Your processor should have a feed tube or opening at the top to allow you to do this. (Add a little more olive oil if the pesto is too thick.)

Makes about 1 ½ cups

To serve, toss with hot pasta, thinning with a little pasta-cooking water if desired. You can also stir it into cooked beans, spread it on breads or add it to dressings.

Other recipes like this one: Basic Basil Pesto

Peanutty Noodles

I’m pretty sure that this dish was my first exposure to noodles and vegetables in a spicy peanut sauce. It certainly was one of the first dishes I learned to cook with some confidence. (It was in the same magazine issue as the Spaghetti Pie.) We loved it and it quickly became something I kept in the back of my mind as an item that could fill in our weekly menu on a regular basis. Unfortunately, all too often I would be missing an ingredient or two and, too hungry to wait to remedy that, we would end up with a quick dinner at a fast food joint. “Having Peanutty Noodles for dinner,” soon became a euphemism for bailing out of kitchen duties and guiltily grabbing something cheap, starchy and fatty.

I am now much more vigilant against the fast food fall-back and, while we still joke about whether we’re going to actually eat the noodles and vegetables in their spicy peanut sauce as planned, I’ve rarely dropped the ball on this one in recent years. It is a relatively simple dish, although the sauce may seem to have a lot of ingredients. The sauce, noodles and bell peppers and snow peas (pea pods) are all cooked separately, then tossed together with ribbons of carrot. It can be served hot (which I prefer) or at room temperature.

I’ve pared down the recipe from its original crowd-pleasing proportions, and made it spicier and more garlicky. I’ve tried just about every color of bell pepper (anything will work, but red, yellow or orange are sweeter and prettier) and resorted to frozen snow peas (or even sugar snap peas) when they were out of season. I’ve used linguine and fettuccine (I can’t remember if I’ve ever tried spaghetti) and, while I think any long noodle would work, I prefer the wider fettuccine.

I’ve tried plenty of other versions of noodles with peanut sauce, including some with chicken or shrimp, but I keep going back to this one. The sweet and spicy peanut-buttery sauce stays creamy rather than clotted and sticky (although the leftovers will have a dryer and sort of chunky sauce that is still very good). We like it pretty spicy, but you could add less of the chile garlic sauce if you want (or more if you dare!) I suppose I could add other things to it, but, to be honest, I’m a little afraid of screwing it up. I’d hate to make something unsatisfactory that would send us out for fast food again.

Our 2010 CSA deliveries start on Tuesday! The salad days begin again soon!!!

Peanutty Noodles
Adapted from Cooking Light magazine

8 ounces uncooked fettuccine or linguine
2 tablespoons canola, peanut or vegetable oil, divided
1 tablespoon peeled fresh ginger, grated or finely minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
¼ cup peanut butter
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoons chili garlic sauce (or to taste)
1 cup red bell pepper, cut into 2-3-inch long strips
1 heaping cup snow peas, trimmed and cut into about 2-inch pieces
1 carrot, peeled and shaved lengthwise into ribbons with a vegetable peeler

1. Cook the fettuccine in boiling salted water until al dente (fully cooked, but still a bit firm). Drain and set aside.

2. While the noodles are cooking, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté 30 seconds. Add chicken broth, peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili garlic sauce. Cook and stir until smooth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer about 10 minutes. Keep warm.

3. Return the noodle-cooking pot to medium heat and add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add bell peppers and snow peas and sauté about 8 minutes or until tender-crisp and just beginning to brown.

4. Reduce the heat to low and add the cooked noodles, finished sauce and carrot ribbons. Toss to combine. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Yield 3-4 servings

Other recipes like this one: Pasta with Cauliflower and Cashew Sauce

One year ago: Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic Tarragon Sauce and Bacon

Seasonal 'Shrooms

You would think that the idea of spring would be thrilling enough in the upper Midwest. Warmer, longer days, lack of snow, green grass and lilacs are like paradise after the long, cold winter. But then comes the food-lover’s gift of spring, the morel mushroom, with its elusive nature and delicate floral and nutty flavor.

I don’t know much about the morel or foraging for it, so I let the experts do that for me (a good idea when it comes to wild mushrooms of any kind.) They’ve been available for the last few weeks and, while I’d only eaten them once or twice before this year, I was determined not to let this limited-time opportunity pass me by in 2010.

When I bought the most recent bunch, I couldn’t find much in the stores to accompany them that was fresh and local. Thinking they’re probably best appreciated on their own anyway, I raided my recipe stash (it’s actually catalogued, at least partially, in a database, so it was a less messy process than it sounds.) A single recipe presented itself and since I had all the necessary ingredients on hand, I pounced upon it.

The recipe was for some fancy little appetizer tarts with a morel and sour cream filling. I adapted it for the amount of mushrooms I had and the amount of effort I was willing to make. In short, I made and easy free-form tart or galette with a simple filling and a delicious crust that is so easy to make, it might just become my go-to pastry. If you have a heavy-duty mixer, this crust takes just minutes to put together. It bakes up tender and flaky and flavorful. All I did to change it was bump up its WFQ* by swapping in some whole wheat pastry flour. Where have you been all my life, little crust? Buried in an overwhelming file of untested recipes, you say? My apologies.

I won’t apologize for getting excited about this dish, though. I might not be able to make it again until those ‘shrooms are back in season, but that multi-purpose pastry will be back in the kitchen sooner than that. Hmm….and the CSA deliveries begin next Tuesday…so many things to be excited about!

Easy Cream Cheese Pastry
Adapted from a recipe in Midwest Living Magazine

If you don’t have whole wheat pastry flour, you can use regular all-purpose flour in its place.

4 ounces cream cheese (I used the 1/3-less fat variety), at room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup all purpose flour

1. Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a heavy duty mixer. Beat at medium speed until smooth and fluffy. (You may also be able to mix this crust together by hand. I haven’t tried it.)


2. Add the whole wheat pastry flour and all-purpose flour. Beat on low speed until all the flour is incorporated and the mixture comes together into a moist ball.

3. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.

Makes enough dough for one 8-10 inch tart or galette

Morel Mushroom Galette with Cream Cheese Pastry
Based on a recipe in Midwest Living Magazine

2 tablespoons butter
½ cup chopped onion
4 ounces fresh morel mushrooms, very well cleaned and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons dry white wine (or vegetable broth)
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 recipe Easy Cream Cheese Pastry (see above), chilled
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (optional)
1-2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a medium sized skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender and just beginning to brown, about 5-8 minutes.

2. Add the mushrooms and wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5-8 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, flour, salt and thyme. Stir well.

4. Stir the sour cream mixture into the mushroom mixture and set aside.



5. On a floured surface, roll the Easy Cream Cheese Pastry into a 12-inch circle (or close to it, no need to be exact.) Carefully transfer the dough to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (or you can brush it with oil.)

6. Spoon the mushroom mixture into the center of the pastry. Fold the edges of the pastry up over the filling. Brush with the egg mixture if desired.

7. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with parmesan if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

WFQ: Whole Food Quotient

One year ago: Baguette

Celebrating Spinach

After a lovely trip to Featherstone Farm, the farm with the CSA program in which we participate, we lucky subscribers were offered a parting gift of impossibly fresh lettuces or spinach. I had visions of a celebratory meal rather than the usual near-instant gratification of a gigantic salad with tender baby lettuces, and selected the spinach. It was a tough choice, but I was determined to learn to make soufflé this spring and the spinach was a prime flavoring candidate.

I can’t believe I’m getting this excited about a bundle of spinach, but boy, oh boy, was this great stuff! At least as tender as the so-called baby spinach you might buy in a plastic bag, but with large, deep-dark, curly leaves, so fresh as to be completely innocent of the concept of wilt. It almost seemed a shame to eat it. Perhaps I should have made it into a bouquet.

Anyway, I did get around that celebratory soufflé. I’d never made a soufflé of any kind before, but thanks to Alice Waters and her book, The Art of Simple Food, I was pretty confident that I knew what I was doing. This is a lovely book filled with basic (but by no means simplistic) recipes and guidelines for essential traditional dishes that feature high-quality ingredients and allow them to shine. The descriptions and instructions are so detailed, so minute, that you might just feel like a master before you even turn on the kitchen light. And so, with this book, I felt like I had learned how to make a soufflé and I just had to follow through.

The basic concept of the soufflé, sweet or savory, is a white sauce (or pastry cream for a sweet soufflé) flavored (in my case with fresh spinach and feta cheese), combined with egg yolks and folded together with foamy beaten egg whites. It seemed pretty complicated to me until The Art of Simple Food helped me to take everything apart and consider each step in the process individually. The good news is that each preliminary step can be done separately and the results held until you’re ready for them. There’s no real hurry from stage to stage. You have to fold the egg whites into the base as soon as they are beaten, but you don’t have to beat them until you are ready for that step.

The only thing you must do quickly is eat the soufflé when it comes out of the oven, which is the best part anyway. If you delay, this airy dish will deflate and your carefully planned procedure will have been for naught. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat a fallen (or even leftover) soufflé. It just means you’ll have something more like a frittata or a thick omelet.

For my first attempt at soufflé, this went extremely well. The spinach was beautiful and tasty and was complimented well by the intermittent pockets of semi-melted feta cheese. The dish was nice and puffy with a golden-brown surface, and I was glad that I had made some effort to find a nice round dish to make it in. A smaller dish (or bigger soufflé) would have allowed for more dramatic rising of the soufflé over the edges, but who needs drama? Especially when all you really want to do is celebrate the first fresh spinach of the season.

Spinach and Feta Souffle

Depending on how salty your feta cheese is, you might want to use less salt in this dish than I did. I prefer my egg dishes well-salted, so may have used more salt than you would like or need.

1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt (plus more for blanching spinach if desired)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ounces fresh spinach
4 eggs, separated
3 ounces crumbled feta cheese

1. In a medium-size saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and sauté about 1 minute. Whisk the flour into the butter mixture. Cook about 1 minute more, stirring frequently.

2. Slowly whisk in the milk. Try to keep the flour mixture (roux) from forming lumps. Cook, keeping the heat at about medium-low and stirring or whisking frequently, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat and set aside.


3. Bring a large pot of salted (if desired) water to a boil. Add the spinach and cook about 2 minutes or until wilted. Remove the spinach, drain and rinse in cold water or plunge into a bowl of ice water. Squeeze dry and chop. (You will not need the pot of water any more for this recipe.)

4. Pour the milk mixture (white sauce) into a large bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. When each yolk has been incorporated, stir in the chopped spinach and feta cheese.

5. Butter the bottom and sides of a 1-1.5 liter (about 1 -1 ½ quart) soufflé dish. Preheat oven to 375 F.

6. With an electric mixer (or by hand, if you’re so inclined) beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. That is, when you lift the beater or whisk out of the egg white foam, it will stand up in peaks that do not collapse. Be careful not to overbeat the egg whites.

7. Fold the beaten egg whites into the base mixture, preferably with a rubber spatula or wide, flat spoon. To do this, spoon about one third of the whites at a time onto the base. Cut down through the whites with the edge of the spatula and turn it to bring some of the base up over the whites. Gently stir this way until the whites are incorporated with the base, leaving a puffy mixture. Try not to deflate the egg whites.

8. Spoon the mixture into the buttered soufflé dish. Bake at 375 F for 35 minutes or until the soufflé has puffed up significantly, but is still a bit wobbly if very gently shaken and the top is golden brown. Serve immediately.

Makes about 4 servings.

Other fresh spinach dishes: Deconstructed Spanakopita Salad, Spinach Salad with Apples and Maple Walnut Vinaigrette

Other egg and vegetable dishes: Zucchini Frittata with Tomatoes on Top, Potato and Bacon Frittata
One year ago: Spring Vegetable Tabbouleh