This Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto is another new recipe for the upcoming cookbook.
I don't think the name really does this recipe justice, though (imo)! Not only was this pesto incredibly fast and simple to prepare, the taste was spectacular. Even looking at the photo now, I have to make this again in the next few days.
The pasta was comforting and 'more-ish', and yet the pesto was zesty and tangy... I just devoured this dish!
I had a few tablespoons of pesto leftover from this dish, and I used it for sandwiches during the week. It would also be incredible on baked potatoes (regular white or sweet potatoes), or mixed into grains, or mashed into tofu. I will have to put together some of those suggestions for a sidebar to this recipe.
How I love easy, wonderfully tasty pasta dishes!
Note to self: Pick up some sun-dried tomatoes today... :)
20 comments:
That pesto looks amazing! One of my favorite dishes is pasta with basil pesto with sundried tomatoes and pine nuts added on top.... this sundried tomato pesto will be a great way to mix things up! Can't wait for the new cookbook!
Michelle
This is right up my alley! With every post I get more and more excited about your new book!!! I can't wait!!!
Do you use oil-packed sundried tomatoes or ones packed without? I also find it annoying to rehydrate the ones not packed in oil. Plus, the oil makes them tastier!
I love pasta w/ pesto! This looks great, Dreena! :)
Hi Dreena, The pasta looks absolutely delicious! The sauce looks very thick and yummy just like my mom's. I can't wait to try this recipe from your cookbook.
I actually had to "retire" Vive for a while b/c it was all I was using and talking about. I think I need to spread my wings a bit. :-)
By the way, the ayeurveda beauty book that I was reading was interesting. I particularly liked the tips on skincare.
Great-looking pesto, great-looking blog. Congrats on the cookbook-in-progress, Deena. I'm working on a new one, too. Let's swap publishing stories sometime...
http://mindycooks.blogspot.com
>>How I love easy, wonderfully tasty pasta dishes
And how great is it that you'll be sharing that with us? Yum.
This looks amazing. We have sundried tomato pesto at my work and it looks so good, but I won't eat it (cheese in it). I am super-excited to have this new recipe. I know I said to keep bringing on the sweets, but I'm glad you didn't listen to some of us, this looks awesome!
BTW, did you get my 2 huge emails that I sent you yesterday? I'm just asking because with photos and files that size I never know.
EatPeacePlease, I put sundried tomatoes in my pasta dish last night and there was no cheese. The brand was Unico. I think it's only sold in Canada. It sucks that something like sundried tomatoes is ok if it's made by one brand but not ok if it's made by another. Crazy!
I'm pretty careful when it comes to reading labels but sometimes I miss an ingredient or don't know what it is and assume (incorrectly sometimes) that it's safe. I just found out that gum is not vegetarian. Do they have to use animals in EVERYTHING??????
Sweetpea, thanks for the info. I work at a "mostly" vegetarian restaurant and my boss does all the cooking/shopping herself, many ingredients are organic. The recipes are her own as well, and it just so happens that she makes her own tomato pesto and regular pesto and both have parmesean added to it. It's not store bought, but I get what you are saying about store-bought items and I don't get many ingredients either!
Dreena! What are you doing to me!? Chocolate & peanut butter, brownies, cupcakes, now sun-dried tomato pesto? I don't think life can get any better.
Thanks, Michelle! There is some basil in this pesto as well, so you will probably dig it as much a I do!! :)
Thanks, Harmonia... and, you can always add more (and more) garlic to it!!
Hi Emily, I use the oil-packed sd tomatoes in this recipe. I strain off the oil, because I don't need it all (and I don't particularly like the flavor of that oil, it would overpower the other flavors). Sometimes I use the dried tomatoes that are in bags, but these days I generally reserve those for soups or casseroles so I don't have to reconstitute them, but let the cooking broth do that work. The oil packed ones definitely are tastier - though once I came across a brand of sd tomatoes that were bag-packed and just beautiful. Like they were truly sun-dried at the peak of ripeness and still had fabulous color and you could see the seeds and everything. Not like most of those bags that the tomatoes are so dark and shrivelled they almost look like prunes!!
Thanks Julie! :)
Hi sweet pea, yes, the sauce is quite thick and very piquant. yummmm... anyhow, that's funny that you have 'retired' Vive for a bit! I think it's good to switch things up and check out other books. Most cookbook authors have favorite combinations and flavors that they work with. Not that *all* of their recipes will be that 'tone', but probably 70% of them. Myself included. For instance, you won't find cauliflower in my recipes (not yet, anyhow)... just not a favorite, so it's hard to do testing with it! So, looking at other recipes and books will definitely give you variety in ingredients and styles of cooking. Enjoy "spreading your wings"!!
Hi Mindy, and thanks! Well, I guess we are both a little crazed then, hey... working on new cookbooks??! :) Much work, but also a lot of fun! Well, you have far more titles than I do, so you must always be cooking up a storm! I will check out your blog and thanks for commenting.
Aw, thanks Kai!!
Hi Leslie! Thanks so much... I know, pestos almost always have cheese in them. So disappointing, really, because they have such vibrant flavors that who needs that cheese? Oh, well, you'll love this one - perhaps I'll send it your way to test out once I'm done. Oh, I will e-mail you back again this morning (sorry, I haven't been very quick to respond to my e-mails the last few days). Anyhow, I love two of those necklaces - and looking at your profile pic, that length of your choker is EXACTLY the length I would love... okay, I'll e-mail you to chat more! Oh, btw, after reading your next comment - YOU should be creating some recipes for your boss for that restaurant you work at. I'm certain you could educate them and give them recipes that are better than what they are serving now!
Carrie, you gave me a chuckle at 6 am... too great!! I guess it's food torture, right? I *could* just post pics of sprouts and wheat grass, not to be so tempting... oh, and that's what most people think we eat all the time anyhow! :) ...thanks again!
Can this be my dinner tonight? Can you just come to my place bearing this delicious looking dish? I had one of those nights last night where everything I tried to cook turned out really off - pancakes with exploding blueberries, mushy burnt homefries and burnt tempeh bacon - le sigh.
Hi Harmonia! I left a note about the peanut sauce on your blog... hope that gives you one or two ideas! :)
Hey Jess, thanks!... oh, why is it that some days just nothing comes together the way you want it to?! I swear that sometimes the 'planets are aligned' in our favour, and other days, well, not so much!! I could go on (and on) about some of my disasters and mishaps! Hope your cooking goes a little better tomorrow. :)
Hi Dreena, got you're email. Now I need time to respond!
You're right about pesto not needing cheese, and you are also right that you should send the recipe my way! I'll be your tester for anything that does not require oven-use.
And for the restaurant I work at: It's amazing and has been around for 26 years. Many organic items, all fresh and homemade. There is chicken there (yuck, but pre-cooked, pre-made and we just scoop it out as a salad), but my boss makes awesome things and all veg but that chicken salad.
I do give advice on vegan items (which there are at least 5 different great foods each day, and the menu rotates daily). The place is health-conscious, "mostly" vegetarian, but I give advice on management and a few other things too.
Thanks for your feedback and I'll email you back soon.
Dreena...thanks for the suggestions! I appreciate them! I made the muffins again last night but didn't have any maple syrup and found this out after I made most of the batter! I also put in less applesauce because I ran out of that too! ZOINKS! Gee, I wonder what two of my items will be for next week's MwM. LOL. They still turned out alright but not as flavorful...it's my own fault though. :) I also made a cheezy sauce from the uncheese cookbook. It was okay. I split the batch in half and added crushed tomatoes to the one half so now I have two cheezes to choose from! I like the one with tomatoes in it better!
Thanks Leslie, I look forward to more 'jewelry chat'!! Sounds like you could be running the show where you work - hmmm, some food for thought for you, perhaps? A "vegan cafe/shop for jewelry while you wait for your food"... wouldn't that be dreamy?! :)
Gee, Harmonia, you are cooking as much as I am these days! You sure sound comfortable and confident too, switching up things and making substitutions where you need/want to! I haven't made anything from the Uncheese cookbook, though I understand it to be quite a great book and a favorite with many vegans!
OMG! This looks delicious! I had a sandwich once with sundried tomatoe pesto on it and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since then!
I can't wait for the new cookbook.
Well, it's trial and error mostly error...haha. But I am just getting a kick out of "trying". Thanks for the encouragement! I need it!
:)
Michelle,
Do you use simple sundried tomatoes, shredded or not, or the ones in olive oil with garlic and basil, the ones I prepare at home from years?
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