Spicy Pesto Third Way: Basil-Mint Pesto Tofu Scramble

Grocery:
2-3 tablespoons spicy pesto
1 package tofu
1 yellow onion, diced
Half a beefsteak tomato, diced
1 potato, boiled, peeled and cubed
Half a 28 oz. can white tuscan beans, drained and rinsed
Handful of tostada shells or tortilla chips

1. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a skillet.  Add the onions and saute until translucent.
2. Squeeze the water out of the tofu.  Use your hands to crumble into small pieces and then add to the skillet and cook until golden.
3. Add the beans and tomatoes and saute until the tomatoes are melted and the beans softened.
4. Add the potatoes.
5. Mix about 1/4 cup water with the pesto and pour over the scramble.  Cook on medium low heat for 2-3 minutes and then serve hot with tostadas.

Spicy Pesto Second Way: Basil-Mint Pesto Bruschetta

For the Spicy Basil-Mint Pesto recipe click here.

Additional Grocery:
1 loaf crusty bread, sliced into pieces about half to three-fourth inch thick
Handful thinly sliced garlic (optional)

Making Pesto Bruschetta: This is an easy appetizer to make for a dinner party because you can make the pesto a day in advance and store it in the refrigerator.  It’s also a really colorful addition to a dinner table (and while I love food to taste good, looking pretty is nice too).  When you’re ready to serve, arrange the bread slices on a cookie tray.  Smear a little Olivio or butter on one side of each piece of bread.  Sprinkle the garlic pieces over the bread so each bread piece has one or two pieces of garlic.  Spread a generous layer of pesto over each slice of bread.  Pop the tray into the oven at about 350 degrees or into a toaster oven for about 4-5 minutes or until the bread starts to look a little golden around the edges.  Eat while still toasty.

Serve this alone as an appetizer or alongside pasta.  We had ours with leftover Pesto Marinara on Whole Wheat Linguine (happy to report that it made for great leftovers).

I made this pesto using mint in part because I’ve become convinced that anything green can be made into pesto (basil, cilantro, mint, etc.) and because the mint in my fridge was threatening to go bad.  It gave a really nice pop to the pesto that lingered in my mouth and balanced the spice of the red chilis and creaminess of the basil.
Grocery:
5-6 half inch pieces of pecorino romano or parmesan reggiano 
2 tablespoons pine nuts
3-4 dried red chilis 
3 big cloves garlic, peeled*
1 bunch fresh basil, leaves plucked
1 bunch mint, leave plucked and stems discarded
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt to taste

Making the Spicy Pesto:
1. Add the pieces of pecorino romano to food processor and process until in small pieces.  
2. Add the pine nuts, red chilis and garlic and process until all are in small small pieces.  
3. Wash the basil and mint.  Dry the leaves with a paper towel or by wringing the water out.  Add the basil-mint mix to the food processor bowl.  Not all of the basil-mint mix may fit into your food processor bowl.  In that case, add the basil-mint in batches and process.
4. While the food processor runs, slowly drizzle in the olive oil through the top opening or add before running.  If all of the basil-mint mix didn’t fit, add the remaining amount and run the processor again while drizzling in the remaining olive oil.
5. Transfer from the food processor to a bowl.  Add salt to taste.  Refrigerate until ready to use. 

*For a milder garlic flavor, you can blanche the garlic pieces before using.  Put the peeled garlic cloves in a saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil.  Drain and then use as you would otherwise.

Spicy Pesto First Way: Whole Wheat Pasta with Spicy Pesto Marinara

Additional Grocery:
Jar of tomato sauce
Pasta (a wide ribbon pasta like linguine is suggested)
Crunchy loaf of bread on the side for sopping up sauce (optional but strongly recommended)

Making Pesto Marinara: Now that you’ve made the pesto, all of the work is done (although it goes so quickly that it hardly feels like work). Heat the jar of marinara in a sauce pan on medium-low.  Add about one and a half cups of the pesto and mix in.  I like to keep a nice balance between the pesto and marinara, so I know I’ve reached the right level when the sauce has a red-green look to it.  Enjoy over wide noodles, like the whole wheat linguine we had, or penne or rigatoni.  I would avoid angel hair pasta since the pesto tends to overpower thin, delicate noodles.

Suggested additions: A few handfuls of tuscan white beans would have gone nicely with this pasta with the added benefit of providing a dose or protein.