Last night we bundled up for our first outdoor dinner of the season. Met the neighbors on the front steps, let the kids get dirty, slurped hot noodles with a fresh spring pesto. It’s not summer yet, but it’s coming.
Parsley is always one of the early springtime arrivals in my garden, but my plants are still just unfurling and getting their footing. This pesto made use of a lonely green bunch of store parsley. I like to keep parsley around for the perky boost it gives to the flavor and color of many dishes. But in this pesto, it’s the star of the show. And it made for a flavorful and nearly effortless dinner; I just whirled the pesto in the food processor while my pasta boiled.
I saved my parsley stems for homemade stock, of course.
Parsley Pesto: (adapted from this Cooking Light recipe) Chop the biggest stems off a bunch of parsley, placing the top 2/3 of the bunch in a food processor with 2 Tb. pine nuts, a crumbled small knob of Parmesan cheese, 1 Tb. olive oil, and ¼ Tb. salt. Process into a rough paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Serve on whole wheat spaghetti with a little more grated Parmesan and a green salad (I dressed mine with leftover lemony harissa oil).
Emmy Cooks 
That’s a delicious looking pesto. I adore wholewheat pasta – it has a really lovely and interesting flavour.
I really like whole wheat pasta as well! It depends on the recipe, but I often think whole wheat noodles are better with my sauces than plain. I really don’t use them for the supposed health benefits at all, just because I prefer the flavor and texture.
I love experimenting with different pesto variations. I especiallly like to add a little lemon juice.
I like lemony pestos too. Or even limey, in the case of cilantro pesto! What other herbs do you like to pesto-ify? I’m always looking for new ideas.
Cilantro is my favourite. Probably because it’s my favourite herb and I also love experimenting with different types of nuts and seeds
Yum. This is the cilantro pesto I keep meaning to make, but somehow haven’t yet despite my best intentions: http://inpursuitofmore.com/2012/03/21/recipe-lively-cilantro-jalapeno-sauce/
Pesto = summer!!
Seriously. I am so ready!
Mmmmm I’ve never heard of Parsley Pesto… but I’m sure it’s delicious! ;) I’ve nominated you an award, hope you’ll like it!
http://foodismylife.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/thank-you/
What a nice compliment! Thank you so much. I’m glad that you’re enjoying the blog!
Parsley stems are one of the best stock ingredients, aren’t they? And a serious mass of fresh green sauce sounds perfect right about now.
I do think spring calls for a hit of fresh-tasting, invigorating greens! I will definitely be making this pesto into the summer, though. :)
That is so perfect, i even have parsley in the garden, and in a pot on the verandah, i can make this, and it looks so simple .. loaded with iron too.. c
This looks so good! The pairing of whole wheat pasta and parsley pesto sounds terrific. We haven’t really started to get herbs in . . . well, it’s hard to tell since the weather has been so warm this season (almost 80 today!). But the minute I see parsley, I am making this!
I love the colour of that pesto.