Spinach Pesto Sauce Super Easy and Tasty

Submitted by kiwidutch

"I am the Queen of Pesto in my community! Something so easy to make, so good yet so many people think it is hard to make. I grow all of our produce and when basil is at its peak, it is time to make huge batches of pesto. Now I have lots of fresh baby spinach and adapted my basil pesto recipe for spinach. It is great with fresh fettuccine, topped over grilled fish and baked with chicken or pork. COOKS NOTES: I usually guess with the amount of ingredients, depending on how much I have and what taste I am looking for. Experiment with quantities to suit your taste!"

 

• Ready In: 15mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 4 cups torn spinach leaves, stems removed, well packed, 16 to 24 ounces
• 3 garlic cloves, halved
• 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
• 1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil (The good stuff)
• 1⁄3 cup grated parmesan cheese (The good Stuff, no green can!)
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt

directions

1. Place a few spinach leaves, garlic, pine nuts, basil and a little oil in blender or food processor container.
2. Cover and puree until leaves begin to look crushed. Continue adding spinach leaves a few at a time with small amounts of oil to blender, using a rubber spatula to help to combine pureed mixture.
3. Add Parmesan cheese and 1/8 teaspoons salt. Cover and process until spinach pesto mixture is smooth.

Reviews

[Kim127]

Very nice pesto. I've broken the top to my food processor so I tried to make this in a blender. Just did not work for me. I have a mini electric mincer thing I bought at a fair once. I had to do it in batches, but that worked much better. I served this a couple of ways. I topped some sliced ciabiatta rolls with the pesto, dabbed on little bits of ricotta and then some fresh grated asiago. Broiled til the cheese melted. DH and I really enjoyed that. I also tried it mixed with some orzo, which was good, but not as good as the bread. Thanks for a great new way to use spinach! Made for PRMR Tag Game.

 

[mummamills]

I bought all the ingredients for this, and then realised that being in Europe, you probably used english spinach for this, as opposed to Silver beet. However, I had the silver beet, so I used that!! I halved the recipe and made it with a hand held blender. The flavour was excellent, and the colour super! The garlic came thru, very crisply. I tested this on 2 friends, and we all agreed it was very good, the only "improvement" that we all agreed on, is next time I will keep out some of the pine nuts, and chop them and stir thru at the end. Thanks Kiwidutch, a keeper for me.