Celery leaf and almond pesto
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| Don't throw your leaves away. No, no, no, no. For you might need them someday. |
I guess it´s my turn to confess that I usually throw out the celery
leaves. I have never had any idea what to do with them!! (don’t shoot me!)Waste not, want not, I now have a very good idea - Hey, Pesto.Back in January, inspired by Marmaduke Scarlet´s English parsley walnut and Stilton pesto I set up a pinterest board flagged "Cooking with colour." My first pin was Scarlet´s pesto.Her recipe matched the pantone colour of the year for 2013- PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald Green.I recently encouraged followers to cook up something colourful and tell us all about it. Well, what better way to respond to the starters gun than create another pesto matched to the pantone colour of the year.Celery and almond I thought sounded like a perfect pesto combination. I used salted Marcona almonds in place of the usual pine nuts for even more richness and creaminess in the
recipe.The celery leaf was very fresh tasting. It’s a
great way to make use of every part of the celery. Just think bottom for mirepoix and top for pesto.
All you have to do is blend together in the food processor: 4 cups of
fresh celery leaves (Chinese celery if you are lucky enough to find it is more leafy, darker in colour, and
has a more pronounced celery taste), 1/3 cup raw blanched almonds, 3/4 cup
extra-virgin olive oil, 2 large garlic cloves (peeled), 1/3 cup grated
Parmigiano-Reggiano, and 1 teaspoon salt.
Every time I colour theme a recipe and pin it on "Cooking with colour." I will be flagging it up with the pinterest logo above.
I would be pinning to but I seem to be having a massive problem with Pinterest at the moment - well I can't pin nor see my boards. Some investigation is definitely required.
ReplyDeleteLove celery leaves - it annoys me that the ones you buy at the supermarket and even at some greengrocers have been denuded of leaves (I sense dark forces at work here - they they look fresher for longer if the telltale wilted leaves are axed!) And leaves get saved for everything - for stocks and soups as well as dried out and whizzed up with salt for a cheat's celery salt.
I love the way you have used almonds too in the pesto - I know this is a bad thing but I think I prefer most nuts in pestos to pine nuts . . . for more punch anyway!
You are ahead of the game!!!I have done the cheats celery salt post.Definitely with you on the nut thing.
DeleteI realised as soon as I had done the verification thing on the comment that you had done a post on celery leaves and salt and I had read it! Sorry, it made me sound a bit as if I had "competitive commenter/blogger syndrome"!
ReplyDeleteGoing to be posting another nut pesto recipe shortly . . . maybe even tomorrow if I can get my act together to post . . . though it's a rugby weekend so I wouldn't hold your breath!