Arugula Pesto

One of the perks of being a caterer is that at the end of the day you get to take home all of the left over ingredients.  Of course if we were more prudent shoppers there probably wouldn't be quite so much left over.  But hey we're new and we're learning as we go.  Following our most recent event we had a bit (okay, an entire crate) of left over arugula.  About half of that crate is now sitting in my fridge and I would hate for it to go bad before we were able to eat it all so I making this with it: 

        
If you have a food processor making pesto is incredibly easy.  Using arugula (you can add spinach too) makes for a more mild pesto than your standard version with basil and parsley.  I love fresh basil so much I added it to this pesto recipe as well.  The following list of ingredients is pretty rough since pesto is very forgiving.  Taste as you go, if you think it needs more salt add more.  Like more cheese add more cheese. Don't add more salt and more cheese however, Romano and Parmesan are pretty salty. 

Arugula Pesto

Ingredients: 

1 pound of fresh arugula, washed and stems trimmed 

1 bunch of fresh basil, washed and stems trimmed 

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 

1/2 c. pine nuts (or try walnut pieces or pistachios) 

1/2 c. grated Parmesan (or Pecorino Romano if you prefer) 

2 tbsp water

juice from half of a lemon 

about 1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste 

Instructions: 

Put first 7 ingredients in the food processor and blend until they form a paste.  Once combined slowly add the olive oil. Season with salt to taste. Voila, simple fresh pesto ready to top pasta, shrimp, chicken, you name it.  Since I have several pounds of arugula in my fridge right now I'll be making a whole ton of this pesto.  Surprisingly, pesto freezes really well so I'll be set for a long time. 

Disclosure: I made this last night but did not do much of what you would call measuring and it was still very yummy.