Suzie's Kale, Arugula and Green Garlic Pesto

by Epicurean San Diego

We went on a farm tour of Suzie's Farm on Saturday and picked a beautiful basket of greens, veggies and fruit. We love making green smoothies so we loaded up on kale and parsley. We grabbed a bunch of spicy arugula and decided it was destined for a pesto! Enjoy this recipe below!

Suzie's Kale, Arugula & Green Garlic Pesto

2 stalks of kale

4 cups of arugula

1 stalk & bulb of green garlic

1/4 cup of pine nuts

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

Boil a sizable pot of water on the stove. Once the water hits a rolling boil, throw in the kale, arugula and green garlic and let sit for 60 seconds. Strain the greens out and immediately put them in an ice bath to blanch them. Boiling then blanching the greens helps them to maintain their vibrant color. Let the greens cool in the water, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Once the greens are cool, pull them out of the water and squeeze out any excess liquid.

Put all of the greens in a food processor with pine nuts, lemon juice and salt & pepper. Most pesto's traditionally call for some cheese, but we decided to leave it out this time. If you want to add cheese, we recommend 1/2 cup of a pecorino-romano blend, freshly grated. Once all ingredients are in the food processor, blend until smooth.

Bring the blend level down a few notches and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until thoroughly mixed.

Toss with fresh pasta, top with some ricotta cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and you're good to go!

Buon appetito!

PS- Have fun experimenting with whatever greens are in season. We loved this blend of greens from Suzie's, but the opportunities are endless! And delicious...