Arugula Pesto

I hate to throw food away.  I hate the throw leftovers away.  I hate to throw produce away.  It irks me.  I feel like I am being wasteful.  So I try my hardest to avoid it, hence my addiction to our deep freeze.  But there are some things you just can’t freeze and that’s when I start scouring the interwebs for recipes involving random ingredients.  Last week, I ton of arugula leftover and I knew there had to be another option out there besides just a salad.  Healthy.  Bleh.  And what did I find out there in web space??  Arugula PESTO with cream – from one of my favorite food blogs no less!!  Win win win.  I actually had all the ingredients already in my fridge and it was a piece of cake to make. 

Arugula Pesto

6 oz. arugula (or whatever you have leftover)

1/3 c. Parmesan cheese (she calls for Asiago, but I was working with what I had in the fridge)

2 cloves garlic

¼ c. olive oil

¼ c. heavy cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a food processor, give the garlic a rough chop.  Then add in the arugula and drizzle in the olive oil while the processor is running.  Once it’s a nice sauce, add in the cream and cheese.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.  Serve over your pasta of choice!

This pesto, with no red pepper flakes added, had some major kick.  I underestimated the flavor impact arugula would have in pesto compared to basil.  But the cream was a nice way to cut that spice a little bit.  You could probably even omit the cream entirely.  It did make the pesto an almost unnatural shade of very bright green.   It was a great use of leftover arugula and yet another pesto recipe to add to my ever growing list.