You can totally eat top bit of the carrot! - you know, that green stuff that everyone swears you can’t eat because rabbits don’t eat them? Turns out rabbits aren’t especially discerning gourmands. Well... at least Google tells me you can eat them. I haven’t gotten sick yet, so it’s got to be at least partially true... right?
Okay, so I’m not really endearing you to my cooking ability and reassuring you that I have any idea whatsoever about the subject I’m writing about - but I assure you that carrot greens make for a fantastic addition to a number of dishes.
One of my favorite things to do to test out any new greany-leafy thing is see how well it works in a pesto. It’s a remarkable sauce that is quite easy to make and is a big hit at parties - or so I’m told. I do spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen. I like to imagine it’s a big hit at parties at least. I like it. that’s what really matters.
Anyhoo, point is: You shouldn’t throw away your carrot greens - fresh greens make a rather fantastic pesto.
Rotini in Carrot-Green & Parsley Pesto
- Olive Oil
- Parmesan Cheese
- Pine Nuts, or Almonds (finely chopped)
- Carrot Greens (roughly chopped)
- Parsley (roughly chopped)
- Salt & Pepper
- Rotini (cooked)
Hey, Notice I didn’t put any amounts in? That’s because this is something you can make to your own standards & tastes - you can make it thicker by using a higher greens to oil ratio, or vice versa. Besides, if you’re always using proper measurements you’re never going to develop a real flair for cooking.
For the record, the thicker pesto is better for incorporating into pesto-cream sauce, the thinner better for heating up in a pan to quickly toss your pasta in.
So we’re gonna make the thin stuff!
The process is the same either way, so let’s get to it:
Oh yeah, you’ll need a blender.
- Put a little bit of olive oil down the bottom of the blender.
- Take your greens and your parsley. Put them in that same blender.
- Add the cheese (or don’t - if you don’t eat cheese, you probably shouldn’t add it)
- Take the middle of the lid of the blender out, you need this bit open so you can add more oil.
- Start with a few pulses of the blender.
- Set the blender to a low setting, slowly drizzle olive oil in until everything flows smoothly.
- Pour the mixture out into a bowl.
- Fold in nuts
- add salt and pepper to taste.
- Heat the pesto up in a pan over low heat - just slightly
- Add the freshly cooked & drained pasta. Toss in pesto.
A couple of variants I’d like to touch on:
- I like to add lightly sauteed veggies, roasted garlic, & bacon to this mix.
- As I mentioned before - a slightly thicker pesto mixed with a cream sauce makes a great pesto cream sauce.
- You can totally add whatever herbs & spices to this mix to make it your own - Basil is the classic, of course - but I ran a special using Cilantro pesto once and everyone seemed to like it.
So there you go! Carrot Green Pesto. Enjoy!
