recipe: chicken risotto with broccoli pesto

I've shared a risotto recipe before and I make it often, but the other night I made the best risotto I have concocted to date. Much of the reason was Partner-in-Crime's suggestion to add the roasted chicken from the previous night. We didn't have a cup measure so I've used 'units' to describe the amount of rice and broth to use. Recipe below the jump.

recipe: pasta with asparagus pesto

Sunday night at 8pm, having consumed only a bagel my roommate prepared me for the past 8 hours, I decided I wanted to use up the asparagus I had in the fridge. With dreams of creamy pasta in my head, I turned to the internets because I knew I had no cream in the house. I came up with an asparagus pesto, from Gourmet magazine, that I adapted thanks to some suggestions from comments others left.

It has enough cheese to satisfy my craving, but the cheese is merely a background player to the savory pine nuts and the bright asparagus and lemon. Plus, the dish works cold for leftovers.

Pasta with Asparagus Pesto
(Original recipe from Gourmet)

• 1 pound pasta (I used rotoni)
• 1 pound asparagus
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• garlic cloves (Gourmet said 2-3 medium, I used between 4-5)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 ounces freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about 2/3 cup)
• peel of 1 lemon (my addition)

[mise en place]

I rarely prep my ingredients first, but wanting make sure I got the asparagus right I did prep ahead of boiling the water this time, with the exception of grating the lemon.

In a 6- to 7-quart kettle bring about 5 quarts salted water to a boil. Saute the pine nuts and garlic in a small amount of olive oil.

Have ready a bowl of ice water. Trim woody ends from asparagus. Cut asparagus stalks crosswise into 2-inch pieces, reserving tips. In a steamer set over boiling water steam stalks, covered, 4 minutes. Add half reserved asparagus tips and steam, covered, until just tender, about 1 minute. Immediately transfer asparagus to ice water to stop cooking. Drain asparagus well in a colander and pat dry. Add pasta to boiling water.

In a food processor pulse pine nuts and garlic with salt until finely chopped. Add asparagus and oil and pulse until asparagus is coarsely chopped. Stir in lemon peel.

Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. When almost ready, add remaining asparagus tips and cook 1 more minute.

Reserve 1/3 cup pasta cooking water and drain pasta in a colander. Transfer pesto to the now empty pot, add pasta* and stir in Parmigiano-Reggiano and lemon peel. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. I found it was unnecessary.

*The recipe has you add the reserved cooking water, I forgot to reserve any and it was fine without, but will probably try to remember next time. I don't think it's dry without out though.

apologies for the lack of posting

I blame it (again) on my camera. I documented several things without my memory card in and now cannot transfer those images onto my computer to share. So here are a few updates with borrowed photographs/ no photographs.

So last weekend (same day as Ben's Chili Bowl, in fact- I should have worried more about nutrition) I decided to make a snack/dinner that is rather wintery- Panfriend Smashed Potatoes from Gourmet via Epicurious. I had made these once before. I loved them, though my boyfriend got creeped out watching the amount of oil you use to cook them. An important thing here is patience. You really need to let the potatoes fry up nicely or they will be greasy. I was a little impatient this time and they were not as tasty as the first time I made them.

Tonight I made a healthier dinner. I was in charge of cooking for the house and after finding a good deal on basil at the grocery decided to make pesto. I more or less made up the recipe as I went, blending the pesto in a blender instead of a food processor due to our limited kitchen appliances. A key to that was going slowly and starting off with a much higher proportion of olive oil and then slowly adding the greens. All in all I used about 7 cups of basil, 4 cups of spinach, 1.5 cups of toasted pine nuts, 2 bulbs of garlic, salt and pepper to taste and olive oil to get the right consistency. Everyone loved it, though it was very garlic-y. I pour this over 3 boxes of pasta. Because we have a few vegans in the house, I just put Parmesan on the side but it would have been nice to blend it in. I'm very excited to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!