cilantro pesto, please

About a month ago, I planted cilantro in a big Terra Cotta pot on my front stoop. Being a first time cilantro grower I was not completely sure what to expect, though I had ideas after reading reports from other cilantro gardeners. Those ideas proved reality when I came home from a long weekend and my cilantro had grown to a bundle of thick, two feet tall stalks with big leaves! Like many plants, you have to harvest cilantro often if you would like it to keep producing those tasty little leaves for you. So I needed something that would allow me to use up all those tall stalks at once before they flowered. The solution: cilantro pesto, something I’d been wanting to try for some time.

When I told my dad about this, my dad being a very good but somewhat traditional cook, he simply told me it was ‘not pesto.’ Well, sure, there was no basil (or parmesan or pine nuts) but it still captures the essence of pesto. {I tried to explain that I am a modern, adventurous cook and there was much to be discovered and enjoyed in experimentation but he sort of just made one of those grumbly dad sounds and said something like, “sounds fun, honey.” He would have eaten it though… and loved it I’m sure.}

The essence of pesto, I’ve decided, is a fresh, green, slightly nutty, olive-oily garnish fit for pasta and dips and, well, whatever else you see fit. So after checking out a few recipes online, including this one on Little House in the Suburbs, a fantastic, creative blog I chanced upon while looking for recipes, I made my way to the kitchen for my own cilantro pesto adventure. Here is how it went -

{these measurements are rough}

1 bunch cilantro

3-4 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons chopped red onion

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup pistachios

salt & pepper to taste

Pluck the leaves from the cilantro, although you can use the stalks too if you’d like, or if you’re lazy, before adding them to a food processor or blender. Add the garlic, onion, olive oil and pistachios and blend until smooth. Add more olive oil if mixture is dry. Add salt&pepper and blend just a bit more. Et voila!

We added this pesto to some pasta with sauteéd mushrooms and onions, I put a hearty dollop of it in the egg mixture for my quiche the next day, and another dollop in our scrambled eggs this morning! It goes well with many things, so don’t be shy. It’s also a great shortcut for seasoning things, quiche for example, which I added no other seasing to that day.

So if you or someone you know has a cilantro surplus, give this a try. Or just get a bunch at your farmer’s market. And enjoy!