Presto Pesto Pasta

 Easy pasta recipes are my fave. Especially when you can use up delish homemade pesto.

This silky smooth pesto sauce has a touch of cream or half and half. The grape tomatoes add a pop of color and spinach is just a power food, so I put some in as well.

This comes together in minutes. And it's nut-free, so the Jersey Girl can eat and still live to talk about it.

For my pesto recipe, click here or see below.

When it comes to any dish that includes pesto, I recommend starting out with small quantities of pesto and then add more if you want a bolder pesto sauce. In my opinion, a little pesto goes a looooong way. But you do you, Boo. If you want to add more than my two tablespoons listed in the recipe, go for it!

Fettucine with Pesto, Spinach and Grape Tomatoes

Makes 4 servings

3/4 pound fettucine pasta

2 Tbsp. pesto (recipe is below) or more if you want a stronger pesto flavor

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

5 ounces baby spinach

1/2 cup half and half or cream

1 1/2 cups, plus more if needed, of pasta cooking water

2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1/4 cup grated parmigiano cheese, plus for more for serving

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook fettucine according to instructions on the box. About halfway through cooking the pasta, ladle out 3 cups of pasta cooking water into a measuring cup or bowl and set aside.

Once pasta is cooked, drain.

Return the pasta pot to a burner over medium heat. Add 1 cup pasta water, olive oil and pesto. Stir until well combined. Add half and half, a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Stir until combined. Return pasta to sauce, stir to coat. Add cheese. Add more pasta water if sauce is being absorbed quickly. Stir again. Add grape tomatoes and spinach. Stir so that veggies are evenly distributed. Cover with lid so that spinach wilts, about 3-5 minutes. 

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and more cheese! 

Pesto Jersey Girl Style (No Nuts!)

Yields 1/2 cup

2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup grated parmigiano cheese

A pinch of salt

Freshly ground black pepper

In a bowl of a food processor, add all ingredients. Process until smooth. Add more olive oil if necessary. Store in refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to six months. You may freeze in ice cube trays for pre-made portions.

Nut Free Pesto

 My family has always made pesto - a tasty puree featuring basil - without nuts. This is good news for me, since I've been deathly allergic to nuts since early childhood. 

I'm sharing with you the way my family does it since your basil plants may be bursting with gorgeous leaves currently.

To clean such a large quantity of basil needed for pesto (about 2 cups), place leaves in a colander and rinse under cool water. Spread out on a sheet pan to dry. This may take a few hours

This puree is perfect for making a pasta sauce with pasta water, olive oil and a splash of cream. It also is fantastic to swirl into melted butter and olive oil to top on day-old bread to make the best garlic bread ever. Literally. Just remember a little goes a long way. A tablespoon or two provides enough flavor for most dishes. 

You can also use this pesto when you are making marinara or meatballs and sauce in the winter, when it may be hard to find fresh basil at the store.

Store it in the freezer in ice cube trays for perfect portion sizes.

Pesto Jersey Girl Style (No Nuts!)

Yields 1/2 cup

2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup grated parmigiano cheese

A pinch of salt

Freshly ground black pepper

In a bowl of a food processor, add all ingredients. Process until smooth. Add more olive oil if necessary. Store in refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to six months. You may freeze in ice cube trays for pre-made portions.

And....... Back

What up, party people?

Yes. The Jersey Girl has been so totally MIA these past few months. Le sigh. Truth is, sometimes I need a break from doing it all. And the blog somehow got buried on my Things to Do List, which has been overrun by a whole list of boring stuff. Yucky.

I'm not a huge believer in the whole New Year's Resolution thang, but I do hereby resolve to get my bootie in gear and recharge the blog. Honest to goodness.

So much has been shakin' in the Jersey Girl Household.

The Husband got a new job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Um. I guess you can say we are over-the-moon excited about this development.) We are totally free from the chains of the newspaper world for reals. Yay! And if you've ever been enslaved by the newspaper industry, you know what I'm tawkin' about. Measly pay. Crap hours. 15-hour work days. Delirium. Headaches. Ulcers. Excessive cursing. Paranoia. Heavy drinking. Cranky pants syndrome. It's freakin' awesome! 

Don't get me wrong. The Husband and I didn't walk away from our daily grind in newsrooms empty-handed: For instance, we totally have a stellar vocabulary, exemplary grammatical skills and can work for 12 hours straight without eating. Oh right, and The Husband got to meet me and woo me and make me his woman.

We also made AMAZING friends in the land of newspapers. Lifelong pals, who are just stand-up peeps. So, for that we are blessed.

I'm just so proud of The Husband for taking a leap with his new gig. Woo-hoo! And he loves it! So happy for him!!

Meanwhile, my bubbalicious Baby Evan has turned the big ONE. Seriously, I can't even believe it. He is so big and cuddly and awesome. He had a rockin' time at his Elmo birthday party. And he has been housing the Jersey Girl's eats. For reals. This kid eats everything. I can't even keep up with him. Two weeks ago, I made beef manicotti and he inhaled a portion that The Husband would eat. Comfortably. And he wanted more. Plus blueberries. Plus Mommy's Mango Banana Surprise (really just mango and bananas smushed together in a blender, but my recipe name has so much more allure, right?) Plus cookies. But Evan's got that one all figured out because cookies make the world a better place.

The Babes is not walking just yet. A fact that I am reminded of every day by the fam. But he's pulling himself up and cruising all around. He's rockin' out an impressive vocab. Among his fave words are: tree, zoo and duck. Not too shabby, right? He's got at least eight teeth, maybe more. Of course, whenever Baby Evan is having an off day, I blame teething. So, according to my math he probably has about 50 pearly whites.

Evan had a grand time at Christmas. The Grinch and Charlie Brown are on his hit list, for sure. And of course, he grooved to some Elvis Pressley while his Jersey Girl Momma baked some fabalicious cookies.

Santa hooked him up with some MAJOR gifts, and the grandparents treated him to his first set of tricycle wheels, which he tried out this week and loved. Thanks, Nanny and Poppy! He was stoked about hanging with all of his cousins and aunts and uncles. And he was rightly impressed by the din dins his family whipped up for him. Feast of the Seven Fishes. Holla!

So, I'm sure at this moment, dear readers, you're all like, "What about you, Jersey Girl? What amazing life-changing experiences have YOU undergone in the past two months?"

OMG. You are so not going to believe it?!?!

The Jersey Girl got a haircut.

Seriously. I got nothin.' I think I am officially The Most Boring Girl Who Ever Was. I've organized a closet, and I'm currently cleaning out the basement.

Riveting.

Onto the food....

Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes with Pesto and Goat Cheese.

O.M.G.

So super delish. This recipe was inspired by the Barefoot Contessa's Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad.

And when I say "inspired" I really mean that the following scenario transpired: I want to make this, but I'm missing two of the three main ingredients. I so did not have fresh basil or fresh mozzarella in the house, so it was my way or the highway. Sometimes, that's how a recipe comes to life, in my opinion. You gotta do what you gotta do. Plus it was New Year's Day, so no stores were open. Plus, I was recovering from the night before and this is what my muddled mind came up with:

Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes with Pesto and Goat Cheese
Serves 4

6 plum tomatoes, cut in half
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil for drizzling
1 tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves chopped garlic
4 Tbsp. goat cheese
1 Tbsp homemade or storebought pesto.
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.

On a sheet pan, place plum tomatoes cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper and chopped garlic.

Roast for two hours. The tomatoes will look dry and crispy on top. Remove from oven. Set aside. (I covered mine with foil to keep them warm.)

When ready to serve: Place three tomatoes on small salad plates. Top with 1 Tbsp. of goat cheese in the center of each trio of tomatoes.

In a small bowl, combine pesto with 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Drizzle the pesto oil over each plate. Serve!

This salad was really quite awesome. I can't believe I came up with on the fly. Yay, Susan. This is a good way to make use of winter tomatoes, which are totally not as yummy as summer tomatoes, especially in Jersey.

Here are some updated pics of my wonderful Evan as well. He's so big!!!

Evan's all set for his big B'day extravaganza in November.

Photo shoot for The Jersey Girl Household's 2011 Christmas card.

Get Your Panini On

A panini is a little slice of heaven. Or as my niece Sophia says, “The best grilled cheese I’ve ever had.” She grooves on the basic American cheese panini. However, the world of panini is an open book when it comes to ingredients. In the summer, we like to have tomato and mozzarella panini. The highlight of the sandwich is the amazing Jersey tomato, which tastes like sweet summer sunshine. Of course, fresh basil pesto and a thick slice of mozzarella make everything taste better in my opinion. So, I guess you could say this sandwich is perfection.

If you've never had a panini, it's a thin sandwich that is pressed down and cooked. It's fabulous, and I highly recommend that you give a panini a whirl.

But first thing's first:

If you don’t know how to make pesto, here’s a how-to: 

 Basil Pesto 

 1 bunch of fresh basil 

A couple cloves of garlic 

A handful of grated parmesan or romano cheese 

Olive oil 

Salt and pepper 

 Put all the ingredients in your food processor and grind away until a bright green basily-garlicky paste has formed. You should scrape the sides at least once and blitz the processor again. 

 You’re probably thinking, “Where are the measurements, Susan.” 

There aren’t any. Pesto is one of those recipes where you just have to just feel it. You may want more garlic or more cheese or more pepper. It’s so based on your own taste. You dig? 

 You may also be scratching your head thinking, “Girlfriend, that ain’t pesto. Where are the pine nuts?” Good catch. There’s two reasons, actually, that pine nuts aren't part of my pesto program. 

First, this is a family pesto recipe. Mommom never used pine nuts, so Susan totally doesn’t use pine nuts. Second, pine nuts don’t make there way into my kitchen because I have a crazy, life-threatening food allergy to nuts. So, if you want to get your pine nut on, go for it! Make sure you toast them before you throw them in the processor. 

 Of course, you could cheat and just buy pesto. I’m not judging. 

 To make my panini, I use a grill pan and the old-fashioned le Creuset panini press, which requires a little muscle. Good thing I work out. If you don’t have a panini press or one of the fancy schmancy bazillion dollar panini machine-like contraptions, you could just place a filled teapot on top of a basic pan to get the pressed down panini affect. 

But I really truly and honestly recommend the le Creuset press. It is made of awesome. 

 So here’s how you make the panini: 

  Tomato and Mozzarella Panini 

1 loaf of crusty Italian bread, sliced 

Jersey tomatoes, sliced

Fresh mozzarella, sliced 

Pesto 

Olive oil 

 Spread a thin layer of pesto on one side of the sliced bread. 

Layer mozzarella and tomato. Season tomato with a touch of salt and pepper. Place one more layer of mozzarella on top of the tomato layer. Place a slice of bread on top to make a sandwich. 

 With a pastry brush, brush olive oil on the top and bottom pieces of bread that make your sandwich.

 Fire up the stove to heat your grill pan, or turn on your panini maker. I like to cook mine over medium heat. Place two sandwiches on the grill pan. Place your panini press on top of the sandwiches and press on down. You should hear an exciting sizzle. Grill for 4-6 minutes on each side. If you’re making them for company, you can assemble the sandwiches ahead of time and cook right before serving.

Please note: Tomato and Mozzarella Panini may also be made without pesto. Just rub fresh a cut piece of fresh garlic over the bread before assembling the sandwich. Place fresh basil leaves on top of tomato after seasoning with salt and pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil.