Garden Rocket Pesto x2

I remember watching Jamie Oliver years ago, always preparing salads and garnishing dishes with a magical green called rocket. It turns out, rocket is actually my favorite garden green. Otherwise known as arugula, this green packs in the most flavor per leaf in my opinion. It's not bitter like escarole or too bland like iceburg lettuce, instead it's rather peppery with a good bite. During the CSA days, I anticipated each bunch of arugula more than anything else.

Over the past weekend, I was assigned the job of cooking for a pack of 10 hungry friends (to keep them nourished before a big holiday party) and was lucky enough to have a cooking partner who also shares my love of rocket/arugula. Making pesto is extremely simple and quick if you have a food processor. I usually just eyeball my ingredients to taste and consistency as I've made pesto far too many times at this point.

As a rough guide...

• 4 cups of packed arugula leaves
  
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/4 cup (packed) freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Once your pesto has a smooth consistency, toss with your favorite cooked pasta. For added flavor and texture, we sauteed a pint of grape tomatoes and tossed them in as well. We served this with a side of focaccia and a small bonus portion of very tasty sage pumpkin pasta that was leftover from the night before.

It's quite safe to say that our plates were a smashing success as most people were looking for seconds and maybe even thirds. I think we provided enough energy to keep everyone going until 4 am so we could all sing in holiday cheer.

The next day: x2

So we had some left over arugula and made another batch the following night substituting toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts.


X2 was served with a Tuscan bread salad made with a nice crusty loaf of organic rustic Italian courtesy of Amy's in Chelsea Market. The main flavor component in this salad is the lemon garlic vinaigrette. We ran low on oil and the bread in the salad was slightly on the dry side but still tasty with tomatoes, onion and cucumber.


So much good food & good times.

Soup's On! Wild mushroom & walnut

For my first post as a member of The Salted Cod, I wanted to start by sharing my favorite and most impressive soup.

Mushrooms and walnuts are two of my favorite foods. In this soup, they get to slow dance together all night long.

ingredients:
1 c. chopped carrots
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped leek
2 c. chopped crimini mushrooms
3 tbs. butter
salt
black pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 pinch dried thyme
1 pinch dried sage
1 c. dried porcini mushrooms (1 package)
1 c. chopped walnuts (I always add more)

First step: soak a cup of dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups hot water for 30 minutes to re-hydrate them.

Then saute a chopped cup of each of the following in some butter, salt and pepper: crimini mushrooms, celery, leek, carrot and onion. add 2 bay leaves, couple garlic cloves, a pinch of sage and a pinch of thyme (dried is fine) After the veggies have just started cooking add 8 cups hot water, the porcinis and their soaking liquid. simmer that for about an hour.
Remove bay leaves.

Then, in small batches, transfer soup to blender, and puree. Make sure you use really small batches. note: when blending hot foods, steam builds up in the blender and the pressure can cause the lid to pop off. To avoid burns, I wrap my hand in a dish towel and hold the lid on that way.

After all the soup is pureed, transfer back to the large saucepan. slowly reheat the soup, and add the cup of chopped crimini mushrooms and the cup of chopped walnuts. If you really dislike walnuts, this soup is probably fine without them. I happen to love them and think they bring a great flavor and texture to this soup.

Enjoy, my new friends!
I hope you don't hate it.