Pesto is traditionally made from basil and pine nuts (or walnuts), plus some other stuff. But nuts are pretty expensive these days and basil can be pricey too, especially out of season. Our Poverty Pesto replaces the basil with spinach and the nuts with sunflower seeds. The result is a splendid pesto at half the cost of the traditional. It’s good thrown over just about anything. Here we add whole milk to make a creamy pesto and toss it with some perfectly cooked Gemelli (Je-mell-ee) pasta.
What You’ll Need
1 – 12 ounce package of frozen spinach (preferably microwave steam-in-bag)
½ cup of roasted sunflower seeds
2 large cloves of garlic – peeled
3 Tablespoons of grated Parmesan (or Romano) cheese
1½ cups of whole milk (or Unsweetened Almond Milk)
Salt & Ground Black Pepper
1 – 16 ounce box of Gemelli (or any style macaroni)
Olive Oil
What to Do
In a large pot, boil water with a generous pinch of salt in it for the macaroni.
Cook the frozen spinach in a microwave, on high setting, for 4 minutes,
Throw the warmed spinach, garlic, sunflower seeds, and the Parmesan cheese into a whirlygig. Put the lid on and puree the ingredients – drizzling in a little olive oil through the top port as it whirls.* Remove the lid and push the spinach down off the sides with a rubber spatula. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Put the lid back on and whirl it again for another 10 seconds.
Dump the pesto out of the whirlygig and into a large saute pan; put a medium heat under it. Add the milk and bring it just to a simmer – then reduce the heat to low. Allow the creamy pesto to simmer (uncovered) while you cook the macaroni.
Cook your macaroni until just shy of crunchy. If you are using Gemelli, that’ll be 8 minutes. Drain it into a colander, then immediately add the cooked macaroni to the pan with the simmering pesto. Toss it all thoroughly; test for salt and pepper and serve hot.
Serves 6. My Cost $ 5.20 Total – about $ 87 cents per serving.
*Just a drizzle. Count to 3, then stop drizzling. GMN