5.11.2010

A green solution


Making do with what's at hand is my forte.
I love the problem-solving aspect of trying to figure out a situation while making the best use of the resources I have at my disposal. 



"substance from a solution" 
Amy Duncan  2009



One recent night I found myself with a big bag of fresh spinach that needed to be eaten sooner rather than later and no other prospects for dinner.  I love pesto but since it is early spring, there is yet no basil growing outside my back door.  Basil is a leaf - spinach is a leaf - couldn't one substitute for another?  I went to work.













I had plenty of spinach leaves and fresh garlic; Patricia Well's pesto recipe in her Trattoria cookbook is my favorite - very simple and easy.  I minced the garlic in the food processor, added the spinach leaves, slowly poured in the olive oil.  By the way, I always have a glass of wine when I am cooking...its usually 5pm...its happy hour...I'm relaxing...and cooking...all is good...













An aside - I am not a big fan of many gadgets - I like to keep it as simple as possible - but I love my Cuisinart.  Got my first one in 1983 - used it 20 years until the plastic housing cracked - now I'm on my second one.  It is a great time saver plus does things (like making pesto) that would just not be the same done by hand.

After the pesto was done, I sauteed some onion and mushrooms to give the final pasta dish a little more substance.













Here is my kitchen helper...whenever anyone is in the kitchen, Calvin is there...you just never know what might fall
on the floor!
I stirred the cooked rotini into the pan with the sauteed onions and mushrooms and then added a healthy amount of the spinach pesto - topped with parmesan cheese - it was the perfect green solution for a quick bistro dinner.

worth a look...

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