Goat Cheese makes a Sassy Simple Sauce

We’ve known each other for close to 40 years

We visited our friends in South Lake Tahoe over Labor Day weekend. John and Julie planned and shared 3 full days of fun, with plenty of boating, hiking, biking, dining and toasting to golden and dear friendships. On our way out of town, we made the requisite stop at Trader Joe’s in Carson City for a road salad, their unrivaled dried tortellini and some hoppy microbrew to bring home.

We picked up our Ranui Gardens CSA box 8 hours later on the way into town. Golden beets went into the oven to roast, the basil became pesto via the Cuisinart and we saved the beet greens in a jar for the next evening’s meal.

Tortellini Pasta with Golden Beets and Greens in a Goat Cheese Sauce

Tortellini Pasta with Golden Beets and Greens in a Goat Cheese Sauce

1 bunch golden beets

1 ½ cups dried cheese tortellini

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

6 ounces fresh goat cheese

Real Salt

1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Roast the beet the day before so they are ready for this quick meal.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the beet greens from the beets. Stick the beet greens in a jar with some water, cover with a plastic bag and store in the refrigerator. Place the beets themselves in a casserole dish with a lid. Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the dish, cover and roast about 45 minutes, until the beets are tender enough to pierce with a fork. Let cool.

Wash the beet greens. Trim away the stems. Chop the greens in ribbons, about 1/2 –inch wide. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add several teaspoons of kosher salt and stir in the tortellini. Cook the tortellini according to the package instructions; for Trader Giotto’s tortellini it is 15 minutes. Drain, saving about 1 cup of the pasta water.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a large skillet on low heat. Stir in the garlic and pepper flakes and cook, stirring about 5 minutes. Place the beet greens on top, cover with a lid, and heat until the greens have wilted and shrunk, 5 to 8 minutes.

Slip the skins from about half of the roasted beets and cut them into pieces about ½-inch wide.

Stir the goat cheese into the greens and garlic, along with about 2/3 cup of the reserved pasta water, breaking it up with a spoon, and stirring to make a sauce. Gently stir in the tortellini and the beet pieces and cook just until they are heated through, adding more pasta water if needed. Season with salt to taste.

Sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds and serve.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

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Pesto Grilled Tofu

Let’s make pesto with the lemon basil and sweet “Genovese” basil in our Ranui Gardens CSA box and this time slather it on tofu, like I described in the last post. But let’s grill instead of bake the tofu out of respect for the heat—it’s just too hot to turn on the oven.

Start steaming brown rice before even pulling the tofu from the fridge so it will be cooked and ready to serve with the hot-off-the-grill tofu.

14 ounces (or thereabouts)  extra firm tofu

1/3 to 1/2 cup fresh basil pesto

Prepare the tofu. Turn the block on its side and cut into three thinner blocks, 1/2 to 5/8-inch thick. Keep the blocks in a stack and cut all the way through to make six triangles. Press out excess water: place the tofu triangles in a large shallow dish on top of a clean tea towel (without terrycloth nubs.) Cover with another towel or paper towels. Place a second dish on top, one that fits inside the first, and place something heavy in the dish–I use my blender. After 5 or 10 minutes the tea towels will have absorbed excess water, and the tofu triangles will be easy to pick up.

Brush oil on the grill grates and preheat the grill to medium heat. Remove the tea towel and arrange the tofu on a plate. Spread generously with pesto.

Cook the tofu triangles, pesto side down first, 5 to 10 minutes. Spread pesto on top of the triangles and turn them over. Cook a few more minutes, then spread with more pesto. Turn off the grill and let the residual heat melt the pesto into the tofu. Serve on a bed of brown rice.

Makes 3 to 6 servings, depending on how much you like tofu.

Pesto tofu on rice with salad

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Basil and Arugula Pesto

Lush Basil

When life gives you basil, make pesto. Pesto stash in the freezer will brighten any winter day—and stirred into pasta, ooh-la-la. Make a point to use at least some of your fresh pesto immediately—it is the essence of summer. Lick it off a spoon if you must. Pack any remainder away in the freezer.

This is my basic pesto recipe. I use all basil if that is what I have, but it’s fun to add other greens too. And don’t be stuck on walnuts for the nuts. Feeling luxurious? Use pine nuts. Sometimes the only nuts I have in the pantry are sunflower seeds and I toast and grind them instead. Pesto is also wonderful with pecans or pumpkin seeds. Deer Valley chefs use sliced almonds.

Basil and Arugula Pesto

2 large garlic cloves

3 ounces Parmesan cheese, broken in pieces or already grated (don’t even think of using that sawdust in the green can)

1 cup tightly packed stemmed fresh basil

1 cup tightly packed arugula leaves

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

With the motor of the food processor running, mince the garlic by dropping it through the feed tube. Process until it is very fine. Add the cheese, basil, walnuts and salt. Process for about 10 seconds, stopping to move things around if they get hung up. With the machine running, pour oil through the feed tube in a thin stream, processing until everything is well blended.

Makes about 1 cup.

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Pesto, Potato and Red Onion Pizza

When we entertain, which isn’t very often, Robbie and I like to do pizza, with all manner of toppings and themes, like Mexican perhaps. In the summer we use the grill, in the winter the oven—its very convivial to hang out at the bar in our kitchen, chatting and sipping and watching the pizzas go in the oven and come out, and tempting all of us with a new combo. Thank you Deborah Madison, who, in The Greens Cookbook, taught me all about pizza possibilities. Smoked cheese is my latest discovery—I love the extra lilt it gives to pizzas.

Pizza in America is not what people usually make at home—but a quick and easy order and delivery. Robbie even fell for a dinner invitation recently; when the host said we were having pizza, Robbie pictured homemade crust and creative toppings. Boy was he surprised when dinner came out of a box.

We went to Moab for a 3-day desert holiday on Monday and I was in charge of dinner that evening.

Bron French mandoline

I packed our pizza stone and the mandoline and made sure to bring the green chile pesto and the package of Iraqi flatbread, a gift from our friend Peter, that I had been hoarding in the freezer. In Salt Lake City, pick up this yummy Persian flatbread at Pars Market on Highland Drive.

Iraqi flat bread

I used the mandoline to quickly slice the potatoes thinly, and I even impressed myself with how easily the pizzas came together.

This recipe is for one pizza, but you can make as many as you wish. Use my whole wheat pizza dough recipe or pick up some Iraqi flatbread—the cooking time will vary, depending on which you use, the dough and the cooking vehicle itself.

Pesto, Potato and Red Onion Pizza

1 10-inch pizza crust, raw and freshly shaped, or pre-baked

Several Warba, yellow or red potatoes (6 to 10 ounces total) well-scrubbed and very thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Green chile or regular pesto

¼ cup very thinly sliced red onion

About 4 ounces smoked cheddar or mozzarella cheese, grated

Over low flame, heat a couple of tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced potatoes and the garlic and season with salt. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of water and cover the skillet. Cook another 5 minutes, just until the potatoes are tender. Take off the cover and let any remaining water cook away. Set aside.

Place the pizza stone in the oven or grill and preheat to 450 degrees or as hot as you can get the grill.

Put the pizza crust on a pizza peel or an upside-down pizza pan that you have sprinkled lightly with cornmeal. (The cornmeal acts as ball bearings so the pizza can slide onto the stone.)

Drizzle some olive oil on the crust and spread it around with a brush or your fingers. Spread about 3 tablespoons of pesto on next, followed by the red onion slices and some of the cheese. Now arrange the potatoes, so that all of the dough is covered except for ¾ of an inch around the edge. Season with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the potatoes.

Slide the pizza onto the stone and bake it for 6 to 10 minutes, until the edges and bottom are deep golden brown.

Makes 1 pizza

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Green Chile Pesto

Genovese basil

Most of the fresh basil we get in our Ranui Gardens CSA box, Genovese basil, lemon basil and even some of the Thai basil, gets made into pesto—squirreled away in the freezer for winter easy meals.

Lemon Basil

We slather pesto on pasta and pizza and swirl the emerald green into minestrone soup when it’s freezing outside. Pesto becomes our quick and easy après ski (and work) secret ingredient, a ready memory of summer CSA gleanings.

 

 

 

 

This year I discovered a new pesto variation, from girlfriend Ellza, who on her travels to New Mexico, learned to add green chile powder to the basil, nuts, garlic and olive oil essence. When she first described green chile pesto, I pictured diced green chiles in the puree. No that’s not it. You need to use New Mexico green chile powder, ground dried green chiles. (Note the spelling—chile powder or ground dried chile is not to be confused with chili powder, which is ground chile powder with cumin and salt and dehydrated garlic in the mixture.) I had ancho chile and Chimayo chile and California chile powder in the spice cupboard but green chile powder was new to me. Now I have a pound of New Mexico green chile powder, seemingly more than I’ll ever use, its earthy and fruity aroma leaking from the bag ready for a batch of Southwestern inspired pesto.

Green Chile Pesto

1 large garlic clove

1 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, broken in pieces or already grated (don’t even think of using that sawdust in the green can)

1 cups tightly packed, stemmed fresh basil

1/4 cup walnuts (or pine nuts to be extravagant)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon New Mexico green chile powder

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Add the ingredients in the order directed for efficient use of the food processor. With the motor of the food processor running, mince the garlic by dropping it through the feed tube. Process until it is very fine. Add the cheese, basil, walnuts, salt and green chile powder. Process for about 10 seconds, stopping to move things around if they get hung up. With the machine running, pour oil through the feed tube in a thin stream, processing until everything is well blended. Taste. The pesto should be hot and spicy, but if you wish, add more green chile powder: season to your liking.

Makes about 3/4 cup. Scrape into small containers immediately and freeze. To use in winter, thaw the pesto only enough so you can scrape some out.

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