I recently had a very confusing day. I woke up and was very excited that my phone said it was over 50-degrees outside. I walked Molly in capri pants and a light sweatshirt and complained for the entire walk that the wind was freezing and ruining my life. How was it so cold outside? Later that afternoon, my phone was telling me that it was 70-degrees! I was so excited for the warm weather that I bought stuff to make a Springtime pesto pasta for dinner with our friends and a warm-weather tequila cocktail. It wasn’t until just before my Spring celebration dinner than I realized my phone weather app was showing me Atlanta’s temperatures because I never changed it back after my trip to visit Melia (which was in January…)
It was actually a high of 47 that day. But we still ate pesto and had tequila!
I made another pesto sauce recently because I had a red pepper in my fridge and it was begging me to be roasted. I also always over-buy everything when I cook, so I had lots of leftover basil. And that is the story of how this Roasted Red Pepper Pesto was born.
Roasted Red Pepper Pesto
*4 Servings
1 cup packed basil leaves
2 large red peppers – roasted
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
Red pepper flakes
Start by roasting your red peppers.
Full directions can be found in my Cooking 101 post. Once it’s roasted and cooled, you can take the skin off and cut it into strips.
Get the basil, garlic, pine nuts and parmesan into a food processor.
Add your roasted red pepper.
Blend until everything is chopped up and then slowly drizzle in the olive oil while the processor is running. Once you get a sauce-like consistency, stop the processor and give it a taste. Add salt and red pepper flakes to your desired taste.
Here’s hoping the next 70-degree day is for real!
