Category Archives: Pesto

Caramelized Onion Pizza with Roquefort and Roasted Garlic and Pesto-Mascarpone Sauce

Caramelized onions are such a treat but requires good quality sweet and savory onions to really bring out the best taste of the food. They go extremely well with mild blue cheese, such as the Roquefort we used here. The first time we really discovered the joy of caramelized onions was at a visit to the farmers market in Temecula, Ca. The ‘strawberry lady’ had brought some gigantic onions that she was raving about. She told us to go home and slow-cook them (caramelize), and basically just eat onion for dinner. We did almost that, but added a steak too (man must eat). However, since then we regularly enjoy this often overlooked treat in our cooking. Most people probably don’t realize how easy it is to make amazing food with something as cheap and simple as onions, so hopefully this can server as inspiration.

Caramelized Onion Pizza with Roquefort and Roasted Garlic and Pesto-Mascarpone Sauce
Caramelized Onion Pizza with Roquefort and Roasted Garlic and Pesto-Mascarpone Sauce

Continue reading Caramelized Onion Pizza with Roquefort and Roasted Garlic and Pesto-Mascarpone Sauce

Fresh Basil Pesto

Pesto is a wonderful spread or topping for sandwiches and appetizer, in addition to its obvious uses in pasta. It’s very easy to make yourself, and when our sweet basil plant starts to grow out of hand we always have a use for the basil. If you live near a well stocked grocery store (We have Trader Joe’s here in California), look for a bag of basil and try this yourself if you don’t have the plants.

Pesto Recipe

  • 3 cups of rinsed fresh basil leaves.
  • 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 3/4 cup of olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of pine nuts
  • 3 garlic cloves

Start by placing the garlic cloves in  a food processor. Pulse a few times until the pieces are as small as they can get. Add the basil and pine nuts, and pulse again. Add the olive oil slowly while running the food processor, and finally add the cheese.

Tip: The Simply Recipies blog has excellent advice for freezing fresh pesto, plus a slightly different version. In general don’t sweat the exact measurements, but try and taste it and adjust. The quality of the basil can vary over the course of the year, or from region to region, so you may need to add more or less cheese and olive oil.

Mascarpone Pesto With Smoked Salmon Sandwich Topped With Honeydew Melon

We always are looking to try new ingredients on our sandwiches, and for a while we have been thinking of ways to use melon. Melon can provide  a little sweetness and also a little bit of crunch (Depending on the ripeness of the melon of course). It’s fresh, so we added it to smoked salmon to really enhance the sense of ‘freshness’ one wants from fish. The mascarpone-pesto was really a way to ‘water down’ the pesto to not overwhelm the rest of the sandwich, yet provide more depth to the taste experience. We like ‘depth’ in our food, as well as ‘height’ (We are making sandwiches after all).

Mascarpone Pesto With Smoked Salmon Sandwich Topped With Honeydew Melon
Mascarpone Pesto With Smoked Salmon Sandwich Topped With Honeydew Melon

Continue reading Mascarpone Pesto With Smoked Salmon Sandwich Topped With Honeydew Melon

Chicken Sandwich with Potatoes Au Gratin And Fresh Horseradish

Potatoes are probably the national vegetable of Denmark. In fact, every year every Dane consumes on average 73 Kg potatoes (160 pounds). Potatoes au Gratin is one of our favorite ways of cooking potatoes, and one of the few ways that Wendie actually likes. It is of course a rather creamy affair, so we don’t do it very often. Recently we indulged ourselves, which left us with a bit of leftovers. Undaunted by the scornful look from Wendie, I went ahead and created this little beaut, a potato au gratin sandwich. What’s not to love when it comes to starch on starch?

Chicken Sandwich with Potatoes a Gratin And Fresh Horseraddish
Chicken Sandwich with Potatoes a Gratin And Fresh Horseradish

Continue reading Chicken Sandwich with Potatoes Au Gratin And Fresh Horseradish

Ham And Tomato Pizza With Italian Salsa Verde Sauce

The Little Pizza That Could!

This is a pizza made from leftovers in all aspects. The dough is actually from our lavash crackers, so it’s a little bit sweet from the Jamaican honey. The Italian Salsa Verde is from a tasting we did with a caterer for our upcoming wedding. The ham is the last of our Jamaican pineapple Christmas ham. Basically we got one of those inexplicable pizza-cravings while making lavash crackers and quickly improvised the little pizza that could.

Ham And Tomato Pizza With Pesto
Ham And Tomato Pizza With Italian Salsa Verde Sauce

Continue reading Ham And Tomato Pizza With Italian Salsa Verde Sauce

Falafel On Ciabatta Bread Sandwich With Roasted Garlic, Chili Sauce and Italian Salsa Verde

There are so many ways one can use falafel to make sandwiches besides the traditional pita bread. Here we have combined it with Italian ciabatta bread because we love that, hot chili sauce because it’s traditional for at least the European Pita style, roasted garlic because it complements the falafel well and Italian Salsa Verde because it brings any food a little closer to food-nirvana (No seriously, add some to your next pizza, sandwich, paste, rice or potatoes and see for yourself).  The salsa verde is very close to pesto, bu is a lot more lemony which adds a great flavor.

Falaffel Sandwich On Ciabatta Bread With Roasted Garlic, Chili Sauce and Pesto
Falafel On Ciabatta Bread Sandwich With Roasted Garlic, Chili Sauce and Italian Salsa Verde

Continue reading Falafel On Ciabatta Bread Sandwich With Roasted Garlic, Chili Sauce and Italian Salsa Verde

Lavash Crackers With Falafel, Pesto And Grape Tomato

We love to make lavash crackers, they are fun, fairly easy, and you can use them for appetizers like this one. This is very simply just two of our own crackers with a falafel, homemade pesto, and sprinkled with smoked paprika. We had this around midnight while watching the episode of Lost where Locke stops the islands time-switches. It was an on-the-spur of the moment little snack we just improvised with what was available, but it turned our really good. In fact, we’re now considering if these may be worth serving at our wedding reception in April (Yeah, we’re getting married). Well done Locke, we salute you with falafel !

Lavash Crackers With Falaffel, Pesto And Grape Tomato
Lavash Crackers With Falafel, Pesto And Grape Tomato

Continue reading Lavash Crackers With Falafel, Pesto And Grape Tomato

Appetizer: Homemade Pesto, Greens, Smoked Salmon And Grape Tomato

We do love smoked salmon in our house, and it makes for great appetizers or snacks. Salmon is also fairly easy to combine with other ingredients, as long as you keep the taste influences light so as not to overpower the subtle fish taste. It works particularly well on fresh bread, or lightly toasted older revived bread.

Appetizer: Homemade Pesto, Greens, Smoked Salmon and Grape Tomato
Appetizer: Homemade Pesto, Greens, Smoked Salmon and Grape Tomato

Continue reading Appetizer: Homemade Pesto, Greens, Smoked Salmon And Grape Tomato

Sandwich Recipe: Corned Beef On Olive-Rosemary Bread With Muffaletta, Parmesan And Pesto

We’ve never had corned beef before, but recently decided to give it a try. This is our first attempt, and while we are not quite happy with the look of this sandwich, it tasted great. This was of course also another reason to get out ye olde burner, to give the Parmesan on top a little color. The burner was a Christmas gift from a couple years ago, and besides making flan (which we have yet to do), its usefulness is being seriously challenged. However, it’s coolness is unquestioned.

Sandwich Recipe: Corned Beef On Olive-Rosemary Bread with Muffaletta, Parmesan and Pesto
Sandwich Recipe: Corned Beef On Olive-Rosemary Bread with Muffaletta, Parmesan and Pesto

Continue reading Sandwich Recipe: Corned Beef On Olive-Rosemary Bread With Muffaletta, Parmesan And Pesto

Turkey Sandwich On An English Muffin With Mascarpone-Pesto, Cucumber, Cranberry Relish and Avocado

Our first creation introducing our Mascarpone Pesto, which turned out to be a brilliant spread for sandwiches and even pizzas. This is one of our leftover turkey sandwiches from Thanksgiving, a fresh creation with a little crunch from the cucumber, and a lot of taste from the pesto.

Turkey Sandwich On An English Muffin With Mascarpone-Pesto, Cucumber, Cranberry Relish and Avocado
Turkey Sandwich On An English Muffin With Mascarpone-Pesto, Cucumber, Cranberry Relish and Avocado

Continue reading Turkey Sandwich On An English Muffin With Mascarpone-Pesto, Cucumber, Cranberry Relish and Avocado