Greens. Greens. Greens. My mother would be so proud to see her once-upon-a-time, lettuce-spurning daughter eat so many greens. And to eat all our greens before the next CSA box arrives, we have to turn to drastic measures of consumption. Forget side salads. Bring on the food processor and pesto.
Pesto is my favorite CSA-survival technique (life is hard, I know). Not only does it eat an entire bunch of greens or herbs in one fell swoop, but a pesto pasta meal only takes 20 minutes from start to plate.
This week’s mizuna pesto was a particular success. Less pungent than a basil or parsley pesto, the mizuna puree was sweet and fresh. I used nearly a full bunch, which packed our food processor to the brim and yielded enough pesto to coat a pound of spaghettini—more than enough for dinner and lunch leftovers. Although second-day pesto pasta tends to be dry, moisture from the mizuna stems kept the pasta from drying out. William ate not one but two portions of the pasta the next day.
This recipe is approximate, but, no doubt, yours will be delicious if you can find greens as lovely as mine (thanks Bee Heaven).
Mizuna Pesto
Combine a seven-cup food processorful of mizuna greens (stems and all), 1 cup walnuts, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan, 3 to 4 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup+ extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Chop, chop, chop in the food processor until it’s smooth. Taste and adjust salt and olive oil as needed. Toss with a pound of cooked pasta, and eat.
FYI: Our camera is on the fritz. We may have to replace it, in which case we’ll be photoless for another week.