Easy Homemade Pesto

Because nobody likes to cook during summer, today I'm giving you a way to create dozens of great meals without working up a sweat. All you have to do is run your blender or food processor for a few seconds, and make a batch of pesto!

Pesto is easy to make and enhances countless dishes.  Making it yourself will also save you a tidy bundle, since purchased pesto is not cheap.  It also makes very appreciated gifts, in little jars everyone will love.

Basically, it's a thick spread made from delicious Italian ingredients, and used on pasta,

chicken, seafood, sandwiches, quesadillas, potato salads, vegetables, omelettes, bread, pizza--

one of my kids once said, "I'll bet you would put pesto on ice cream."  It's that versatile. (Check out my blog post about how to make shrimp scampi with it here: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6442457294047845405#editor/target=post;postID=2493541591824029624;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=17;src=postname

It uses basil leaves, which are plentiful at the market right now, but I urge you to grow your own basil.  Keep snipping it so it doesn't flower and go to seed, and use the chopped, fresh leaves in your cooking.  (So divine with tomatoes, mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar to make a Caprese salad).  If you don't have space for a garden, basil grows well in a planter on the patio.  Like all herbs, it needs sunshine, so place it where it will get full sun.  Keep it watered and you can supply your neighbors with basil all summer!
Here's how to make it into pesto:
2 Cups packed fresh basil leaves
1 Cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 Cup pine nuts
1/3 Cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Whirl until smooth.  That's it!  You'll get just under two cups of pesto.  Use it on sandwiches in place of mayonnaise, top a baked potato with it, spread it on french bread, cover with mozzarella and broil until bubbly, here I go again.  Have a delicious, carefree summer!

Easy Shrimp Scampi

Happy Shrimp Scampi Day! 

Yes, I am celebrating this little-known holiday, and you should as well.  Cooking Contest Central  at http://cookingcontestcentral.com/contests/category/deadline/ has asked me to post a Shrimp Scampi recipe for you and I jumped at the chance to show you just how simple (and fast!) this dish can be.   I have created the most slam-dunk easy recipe for Scampi that you have ever seen.  It’s so simple—just two ingredients—that I can’t even enter it in a contest.  It would be like entering breakfast cereal in a contest—you pour it in a bowl and you add milk—uh, okay, we all knew that.

So believe me, even non-cooks can make this, and dazzle their guests.  Granted, shrimp are not cheap.  Prawns and jumbo shrimp are even less cheap.  But they’re a whole lot less expensive than certain cuts of meat, and way below the cost of crab or halibut these days.  Choose whatever size shrimp you like, and then watch them as they cook so that you can serve them just as they become pink and opaque.  Do not overcook seafood.  Ever.  I have spoken.

WORLD’S EASIEST SHRIMP SCAMPI

Enough Shrimp for 4 people (3-4 jumbos per person, or 8-10 small guys per person, your choice)—peeled and deveined

4 Tbsp. bottled pesto sauce

OPTIONAL: ¼ Cup butter, if you want the sauce to be thinner for bread dipping (if tossing with pasta, double butter and pesto)

OPTIONAL: a squeeze of fresh lemon

Directions:  If you read any scampi recipe, you will notice that the sauce ingredients read like the label on a jar of pesto sauce.  So why not just use pesto sauce? This is a great step-saver!  If you want it more garlicky, I guess you could add more, but never overwhelm delicate seafood flavors with sledgehammer spices.  Please.  Heat the pesto sauce in a skillet over medium-low heat.  If you want to thin it with butter, or even more olive oil than is already in the pesto, now would be the time to add that.  Place the shrimp in the skillet, add a squeeze of lemon if you wish, and let them cook just a minute or two per side, then turn them, watching until they are fully opaque.  Ta-da!  The shrimp are done and so are you.

Note: Some people like to leave the tails on because they think shrimp are prettier this way.  HOWEVER… this only leaves you two choices, both undesirable in my opinion.  Choice Number One: You must cut the tails off with a knife, leaving some shrimp inside the tail and wasting that delicious shrimp meat.  Or, Choice Number Two: You will pick up the shrimp, lightly bite the tail to release all the meat, but then end up with greasy fingers.  I vote for completely peeling the shrimp before you cook them, which makes life much easier for your guests.

             

Pesto Pepper Chicken Rolls

I love pinwheels.  Roll-ups, roulades, spirals-- I guess I love to play with my food. And a number of my pinwheel-themed dishes have won prizes in recipe contests, such as the tortilla roll-up that uses deli-sliced beef that won 3rd place in the National Beef Cookoff years ago, and which you see in every deli in the land now, and at every potluck. 
This one was the Grand Prize Winner in a contest sponsored by Gold Kist Farms Chicken.  It's really colorful and showy (scroll down to see the picture!) but it's also really easy-- only five ingredients!  Perfect for guests but also a good go-to meal for weeknights with the fam'.  Enjoy!

6 Gold Kist Farms boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (15 oz.) jar mild pesto sauce
2 Cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (16 oz.) jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into large pieces to fit chicken breasts
2 Tbps. black peppercorns, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place each chicken breast between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to about a 1/4-inch thickness.  No, I will not mention the similarity here, to getting a mammogram.  Spread a generous layer of pesto sauce ove
r each breast, then sprinkle with jack cheese.  Top with pieces of roasted red peppers.  Roll each breast jelly-roll style, secure with wooden picks.  Press crushed peppercorns evenly into chicken rolls.  Place rolls in a shallow baking pan sprayed with nonstick spray.  Bake 45 minutes.  Slice to reveal pinwheel pattern.  Serves 6.