Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
Today, I’m continuing my exploration of pesto with a recipe for spinach, pecan and thyme pesto:
For the last few weeks, I have used my blog to post articles about the foundational sauces of California Cuisine. I started this exploration with mayonnaise. For my first few posts, I shared such sauces as roasted red bell pepper aioli, tartar sauce, honey-pecan prawns and even recipes for a great little mayonnaise cake. It was a fun exploration. Next, I tackled vinaigrettes and shared recipes for everything from a basic vinaigrette to a really terrific chimichurri sauce that makes a delicious pairing for rich cuts of grilled meats.
At the end of last week, I introduced the next sauce in the lineup: pesto. Pesto literally means “to pound.” The most common form of pesto is made from sweet basil, parmesan cheese, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, salt and pepper; sweet basil pesto sauce is one of my favorites and during the summer months when there are literally piles and piles of sweet basil at the farmer’s market, I can’t resist buying bundles of it for our daily consumption, but I also make about a dozen jars of it to freeze so we can enjoy it throughout the year. I continued my exploration of pestos with a quintessentially California pesto: almond-thyme pesto. Almonds, along with walnuts, pistachios and pecans, are one of California’s state nuts. Almond-thyme pesto is great with pasta and as an accompaniment to meats and fish as well.
Today’s lovely, mild pesto is a mixture of spinach, pecans, thyme and a little lemon. It makes a great dressing for pasta:
but it really shines as a sauce for a mild fish, such as halibut:
The sauce comes together in a flash because all the ingredients can be put into a little food processor and pulsed together in only a minute or two:
The flavors of this pesto are fresh, herbaceous and slightly buttery and sweet flavor because of the pecans. Be sure to get all the ingredients fresh from your local farmer’s market in order to ensure the best flavors.
Join me tomorrow when I’ll be kicking things up a notch with spicy mint sauces!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
