Recipe: Chicken & Dumplings with Leeks and Tarragon

The holidays are far gone, but we're still getting plenty of use out of this year's stove-centric loot. By now, anyone out there reading knows that we love hearty one pot meals: lamb stew, pork butt, brisket, the list goes on. And while our trusty royal blue Le Creuset was plenty big for small gatherings, it couldn't accommodate the larger parties that we love to have. Luckily, Jake's parents gifted us another dutch oven with a whopping 7.25 quart capacity, and in aqua blue this time! We're so in love with it that we've used it at least once a week since, regardless of our party size. (Good thing we have a big freezer!)

Also under the tree/menorah this year: the new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook! We so often go to the Smitten Kitchen blog for inspiration and had been waiting anxiously to pour over the beautiful book as soon as it was released. It did not disappoint and after binging on Perelman's recipes and luscious photography we were left with a hankering for one of our favorite SK recipes – Chicken and Dumplings! The recipe isn't in the book (it's ok Deb, we forgive you!) but since we practically have it memorized, we dove right in. And, of course, our brand new Le Creuset was ready and waiting to be broken in.

Chicken and Dumplings with Leeks and Tarragon
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Cooks Illustrated

For the Stew:
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 peices
salt and ground black pepper
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
2 medium leeks cut in half lengthwise and then into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, minced
6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dry sherry
4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 cup frozen green peas
3 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon leaves

For the Dumplings:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat (or unsalted butter)

1. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half of the chicken and cook until golden on both sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and remove the browned skin. Pour off the chicken fat and reserve. Return the pot to medium-high heat and repeat with the remaining 2 teaspoons oil and the remaining chicken. Pour off and reserve any chicken fat.

2. Add the butter to the Dutch oven and melt over medium-high heat. Add the leeks, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the sherry, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the broth, milk, thyme, and bay leaves. Nestle the chicken, with any accumulated juices, into the pot. Cover and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked and tender, about 1 hour.

3. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board. Discard the bay leaves. Allow the sauce to settle for a few minutes, then skim the fat from the surface using a wide spoon. Shred the chicken, discarding the bones, then return it to the stew.

4. On to the dumplings... stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Microwave the milk and fat in a microwave-safe bowl on high until just warm (do not over-heat), about 1 minute. Stir the warmed milk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until incorporated and smooth. Return the stew to a simmer, stir in the peas and tarragon, and season with salt and pepper.

5. To make the dumplings, gather a golf-ball-sized portion of the dumpling batter onto a soup spoon, then push the dumpling onto the stew using a second spoon. The dumplings should be about 1/4 inch apart and you should have about 18 dumplings. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the dumplings have doubled in size, 15 to 18 minutes. Serve!

Recipe: Sinful Bread Pudding

In case you haven’t noticed, we love dessert. Whether it’s a simple scoop of Maple Valley Ice Cream or a decadent chocolate molten soufflé cake, we want a bite and then some. And while we are equal-opportunity dessert eaters, one our favorite forms of post-dinner sweetness is pudding. Rice, Indian, tapioca, banana - you name it, we’ll eat it.

Did you get the Saveur magazine in which Gabriella Gershenson, a Berkshire food devotee, wrote about Berkshire Mountain Bakery? In addition to waxing poetic about owner Richard Bourdon’s unique baking process, she asserts that their chocolate ciabatta is perfectly fit for bread pudding. Well, we had to try it – and right away. We jumped in the car and headed to the Co-Op, only to discover that they were sold out! Not to be deterred, we grabbed a discounted day-old BMB peasant loaf, some chocolate chips and headed home to improvise.

Looking through our cookbooks, we flipped across so many delicious sounding variations on the classic recipe. Chocolate bread pudding, brown-butter bread pudding, bourbon bread pudding... being the gluttons that we are, we decided that there was no harm in having it all once in a while. So after a few preparatory shots of Berkshire Mountain Distillers rum, Silka got down to the business of making the most sinful bread pudding possible.

Sinful Bread Pudding
Adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

+ 6 cups baguette or ciabatta, cut or torn into 1-inch chunks
+ 4 tablespoons butter, plus more for greasing
+ 2 cups half-and-half
+ 3/4 cup maple syrup
+ 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
+ a pinch of salt
+ 3 tablespoons rum or whiskey
+ 4 eggs
+ 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Over low heat in a small saucepan butter, half and half, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt and liquor until the butter just melts. In the meantime, butter an 8x8 baking dish or a casserole that fits 1.5 quarts.
2. Put bread pieces into casserole and pour the slightly cooled milk mixture on top. Let sit for a few minutes, submerging any pieces of bread that rise to the top.
3. Beat the eggs lightly, and pour over the bread mixture along with the chocolate chips. Stir gently, being careful not to tear up too many of the bread pieces.
4. Bake for 45 minutes. The center will be a little wobbly still, but it will set as it cools. Serve warm.

Recipe: Brisket Chili

We have been toying around with the idea of the perfect chili for a while now. Of course, depending on your location and heritage, there are a thousand different variations on a classic. Beans or no beans? Pork or beef? Do you use a whole muscle or ground meat? What cut? And then, what kind of chiles do you use? Researching a "classic" chili doesn't answer many questions as much as it just asks more. And so we stewed (get it!?) on these questions happily, experimenting and tasting along the way. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it.

At long last, we decided: beans on the side; beef; whole muscle; brisket, ancho and chipotle chilies. And since the only thing more American than apple pie is chili, we debuted our well-tested recipe on election day for a group of hungry and anxious friends.

 
As he was closing up shop Monday night, Jake grabbed a gorgeous and fatty Whippoorwill brisket, along with some Cayuga black turtle beans, Wild Hive cornmeal, two quarts of beef stock, and a few ancho and chipotle chili peppers. On Tuesday afternoon, he put the brisket in the oven, the beans on the stove top, and let everything simmer away. Meanwhile, Silka made some skillet cornbread to soak up the smokey, spicy sauce.

In the end we couldn't have been happier with the results... ALL of them.
 

Brisket Chili

+ 4 tablespoons of lard or bacon drippings
+ 1 whole beef brisket, with lots of fat (roughly 6 lbs)
+ Sea salt
+ 2 medium onions, chopped
+ 4 cloves garlic, crushed
+ 3 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
+ 3 teaspoons cumin
+ 4 dried chipotle chillies
+ 4 dried ancho chillies
+ ¼ cup brown sugar
+ 2 tablespoons tomato paste
+ 2 cans of plum tomatoes
+ 2 quarts beef stock
 

To prepare:
Bring the brisket out of the fridge at least one hour prior to cooking so it comes to room temperature. At the same time, soak the dried chilies in hot water for about ½ hour.

1. Pat the brisket dry and coat with salt. (We used smoked salt - if you can find it, we recommend it!). Preheat the oven to 250.
2. Heat the lard in a large dutch oven over high heat.
3. When the lard starts to smoke, brown the brisket for 3 minutes on each side. Set brisket aside.
4. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, cooking until softened.
5. Add the paprika, cumin, sugar, tomato paste and chillies, cooking for an additional minute.
5. Return the brisket to the pan along with tomatoes and stock. Bring to a boil and cover.
6. Place in the oven for 6 hours, removing the lid for the final 1 ½ hours of cooking.
7. After you have removed the the brisket from the oven, take the brisket out of its sauce, place in a deep dish and let rest.

8. With an immersion blender, or in a food processor or blender, puree the sauce remaining in the dutch over and reduce for about ½ hour. 

9. Serve brisket with the chili sauce poured on top, beans and cornbread on the side. 

Serves 8-12.

Recipe: Cauliflower Soup

We just love Brassica oleracea, there is no way around it. For some reason though, this fall we have been really, really into cauliflower. The intensity of our new-ish obsession is fed by the vegetable's consistent presence on the counter at The Meat Market; each week a cornucopia of white, orange, lavender and romanesco cauliflowers come in from Indian Line Farm and The Berry Patch, begging us to take them home.

Unfortunately for our camera, when Jake decided to bring a few heads home from the shop, all that were left were the white ones. On a standard night we'd roast them alone or with a collection of fall veggies - there's nothing better than a nutty, crisp-on-the-edges bite of roasted cauliflower. But, this time we thought we should branch out a little. Looking around on Food52, one of our go-to food blogs, we came across this recipe a favorite cookbooks - Cooking By Hand by Paul Bertolli.

As Paul so often does, he took amazing ingredients in their purest form, graced them with an incredibly simple preparation and created a perfect seasonal dish. Eating this soup is like eating a cloud - it is mind-blowingly light and fluffy. The delicate sweetness of the cauliflower stands out, highlighted by the earthiness of an extra virgin olive oil drizzle. And while managing to be extremely light, it still satisfied our cold weather craving for hot and hearty food. We would definitely recommend this dish with equal enthusiasm for an easy weeknight meal and a formal dinner party - it will definitely make it's way into our cauliflower rotation.

Cauliflower Soup 

From Cooking By Hand by Paul Bertolli

+ 3 tablespoons olive oil
+ 1 medium onion, sliced thin
+ 1 head very fresh cauliflower (any color), broken into florets
+ 5 1/2 cups water
+ Salt, to taste
+ Good extra virgin olive oil, to taste
+ Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. On a medium heat warm the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Put in the onion letting it brown, about 15 minutes.
2. Add the cauliflower, salt, and 1/2 cup water. Raise the heat slightly, cover the pot tightly and stew the cauliflower until tender, about 15 min. Then add another 4 1/2 cups hot water, bring to a low simmer and cook an additional 20 minutes uncovered.
3. Purée the soup with an immersion blender to a very smooth, creamy consistency. Let the soup stand for 20 minutes. In this time it will thicken slightly.
4. Thin the soup with 1/2 cup hot water. Reheat the soup. Serve hot, drizzled with a thin stream of extra-virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.

Recipe: Chicken in 40 Cloves

As much as we love a good BBQ and summer produce, we’re excited to watch the leaves turn yellow and red and feel the days shorten because that means our meals are starting to change as well. Fall is really our favorite season for cooking. Braises, roasts, Brussels sprouts and squashes... we just can’t get enough. The thing is, most of those autumnal foods require a fair amount of time to prepare. And while there is nothing better than slowly braising a lam neck for 8 hours as you read by the fire, right now we just don't have the time for that.



Luckily, we have access to plenty of chicken! With just a few simple ingredients, chicken lends itself to a quick braise - all that deep, warming flavor we crave within a reasonable weeknight's cook time. For one of our first fall stews Jake brought home a chicken, a quart of stock and 4 heads of garlic while Silka picked up a bottle of dry white wine and some cookies. (Obviously, the cookies were not used in the preparation of the chicken.) In under an hour we were sitting down to a gorgeous meal, in front of a roaring fire and in a warm house filled with the scent of slowly roasted, caramelized garlic.


Chicken in 40 Cloves

+ 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
+ 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
+ 1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
+ Salt
+ about 40 large garlic cloves, or heads or garlic, peeled
+ 1/2 cup dry white wine
+ 1/2 cup chicken stock

1. Pat the chicken pieces dry and season liberally with salt.
2. Add oil and butter to a dutch oven over a high flame.
3. When the fats are hot but not smoking add chicken pieces, skin side down, and cook until skin turns an even, golden brown - about 3 minutes. Turn over to brown other side and when done, set pieces aside. Work in batches to cook all the meat.
4. Reduce heat to medium. Place the garlic cloves at the bottom of the skillet and sauté until garlic is lightly browned on all sides - about 10 minutes.
5. Add the chicken on top of the garlic then pour in the wine and stock.
6. Cover and continue cooking until juices run clear when a thigh is pricked - 10 to 15 minutes more.
7. Take cover off and place under the broiler for 5 minutes to re-crisp skin of the chicken. Serve over rice or potatoes.

Recipe: Raspberry Sour Cream Tart

We are loving our first September together in New Marlborough – perfect weather, the best produce and the late afternoon light?! Amazing! In fact, we fell so in love with September in the Berkshires that we’ve been inspired to get married here, in our backyard, next fall!! 

Not surprisingly, many of our preliminary wedding-planning conversations revolve around food. Jake works with the most amazing team of caterers at Fire Roasted Catering, The Meat Market’s sister company, so that decision was easy to make. But there’s still the cake. We definitely want to incorporate fruit and since we’re drowning in raspberries right now (in the best way!) we knew they’d be a great, seasonal fruit to celebrate.

 

So why do we have so many raspberries? Decades ago Jake’s grandmother planted two raspberry patches - a summer patch and an autumn patch. As the weather starts to cool and the days get shorter, we feel so lucky to have this incredibly bountiful second harvest! On any given day there is at least a quart of newly ripe, sweet rubies to be plucked.

Ok, back to the wedding! We’ve started to play around with some raspberry dessert ideas, preferably ones that are red and white to match our décor (more on that later!). Through a fruitful Google session, Silka found this beautiful and bright recipe - and while it may not be suitable for our wedding cake, we are so happy to have stumbled upon it! 

Raspberry Sour Cream Tart
Bon Appetit via Epicurious.com

For crust
+ 8 whole graham crackers, coarsely broken
+ 1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
+ 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For filling and topping
+ 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
+ 1/3 cup sugar
+ 1/2 cup sour cream
+ 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
+ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
+ 2 1/2-pint baskets raspberries
+ 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

To make crust:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grind crackers and sugar in processor until coarse crumbs form. Add butter and process until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom and up sides of 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Bake until crust is firm to touch, about 8 minutes. Cool crust on rack.

Make filling and topping:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in medium bowl until smooth. Beat in sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla. Spread filling in cooled crust. Chill until firm, at least 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)

Arrange berries over filling. Whisk jam in small bowl to loose consistency. Drizzle over berries. Serve immediately or chill up to 3 hours.

Recipe: Santa Maria Tri-Tip

Jake has been talking about bringing a tri-tip steak home to grill all summer - easier said than done. Each steer only has two tri-tips and it's an elusive cut in the north-east, so they generally don't last long in the case. Like other one- or two-to-an-animal cuts (skirt, flank, and hanger) Jake had resigned himself to going yet another summer without one. But last weekend The Meat Market had a few too many of this much-coveted cut and Jake was finally able to sneak a couple home!

The tri-tip is a incredibly flavorful and unique cut, but because it's a muscle that starts in one primal (the loin) and ends in the other (the round) it is usually forfeited at the hands of industrial meat processing. It is also a part of the sirloin subprimal, sometimes referred to as the bottom sirloin. As a result of this cross-sectioning of cuts, the tri-tip cooks like a roast as much as it does a steak, giving you a ton of different preparation options. We think it's the best of three pretty awesome worlds; the texture of a flank, the tenderness of a sirloin, and the flavor of the top round. 

Made popular in central California at the turn of the 20th century, the tri-tip is most often cooked in the Santa Maria style - coated in a dry rub and grilled. As you well know, we generally like to keep our steaks as simple as possible, but the flavor of the tri-tip is bold so we knew it would stand up to a heavy rub. We looked around for various recipes but in the end, surprised by how few there were, we put our own mix together. While the spices were setting in, Silka threw together a minimal salsa verde with a pile of tomatillos from our garden. It may have been one of our last nights of grilling this season, and we couldn't have asked for a better send-off!

Santa Maria Tri-Tip

+ 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt

+ 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

+ 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

+ 1 tablespoon sweet paprika

+ 1 tablespoon chipotle-chili powder

+ 2 teaspoons garlic powder

+ 2 teaspoons onion powder

+ 1 teaspoon ground cumin

+ 2 trimmed tri-tips (1 ½ lbs each)

1. Mix all of the spices together thoroughly.

2. Rub the spice mix all over the steaks. 

3. Let the steaks stand for two hours, reapply any rub left over.

4. Meanwhile set up your grill so that there is a very hot side and a side for indirect heat.

5. On the hot side of the grill sear the steaks on each side for 3 mintues.

6. Move the steaks to indirect heat and cover the grill. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, or until the steak reaches 120 f.

7. Let stand for 10 minutes, slice and serve!

Serves 4-6 people

Recipe: Fettuccine with Green Tomato Sauce

In many ways the summer can feel like one long build-up to that first bright-red, juicy tomato from the garden. For months we spend warm evenings strolling through the garden, checking on the state of our staked fruit, patiently waiting for mid-August. And then! We gorge - tomato sandwiches, caprese salad, salsa, fresh tomato sauce, grilled tomatoes, tomato and cucumber salad, canned tomatoes, tomato jam, you name it! 

 

But this summer we planted our seedlings a little late. So here we are, in late-August with nothing but a few light-green orbs. Luckily - while nothing compares to that sweetly satisfying first bite of a big red - the truth is that there are plenty of delicious things to do with a green tomato.

With a green tomato’s tart and firm flesh, there is a world beyond the classic fried side (not that there’s anything wrong with fried green tomatoes!). One popular option, seen often in kosher-style delis, is to go the pickle route. But in our house we like to do something else: green tomato sauce over pasta. Sauteed with onions, some cream, and bits of bacon (duh!), green tomatoes are the perfectly acidic base for a mid-summer-going-on-fall sauce.

Fettuccine with Green Tomato Sauce

+ 1 lb bacon, cut into small chunks
+ 3 lbs green tomatoes, cut into small chunks
+ 1 large onion, sliced
+ ½ cup cream
+ 1 lb fettuccine

1. Fry the bacon in a large saute pan. When done, remove bacon and set aside, reserving the bacon fat.
2. Saute the onions over medium-high heat until translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook for about one hour, or until the the tomatoes are soft. Meanwhile boil water for pasta.
3. Cook the pasta and drain. Around this time, add the cream to the sauce and remove from heat.
4. In a serving bowl, pour the sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with bacon.

Recipe: Tomato Pie

We’ve been spread pretty thin lately, slowly settling into our new lives here in New Marlborough, so you may have noticed that we’ve been neglecting the blog a little bit. Though our next post is always in the back of our minds it has been a struggle - between a new kitchen and new schedules - to get into a good cooking, picture taking and writing routine. 

But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy working on The Butcher and The Baker. On his days off from The Meat Market, Jake has been scouting out new farms to profile (look out for our next Field Trip to Whippoorwill Farm!) and organizing our overflowing kitchen. All the while Silka has been busy in the garden, meeting with lots of people in the local food community and getting us published! It’s been so fun and really exciting... but now here we are, running in circles and getting a little tired of pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Now don’t get us wrong, a great pasta with some cheese and seasonal veggies is the best. But we have started to search for, if not new veg, (because really, how can you get sick of summer produce) a new carb-based canvas. Inspired by the one thing we’re never too busy to make - PIE! - Silka decided to skip the spaghetti and make a simple and savory tart with our CSA harvest and veggies from Jake’s father’s garden. 

While we, along with most of the country, have been experiencing a terrible crop-testing drought, Jake’s father's garden is somehow bursting with bright veggies. Everywhere you look there are tons of juicy, golden orbs hanging just waiting to be plucked. Warm off the vine, they are bursting with a bright, sweet flavor. After shoveling a few freshly-picked handfuls into our mouths, we dumped as many as we could into a basket and brought them home where Silka had a roughly rolled-out crust waiting. Piled high with the tomatoes, some onion and thyme, we folded over the edges and threw it into the oven. 

Classic Pie Dough
(The recipe below is for one 8” pie crust. In the case of a rustic tart, we like to make 1.5 times this recipe so there is plenty of dough create a sturdy edge.)

1 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces
½ bar of cold cream cheese, cut into pieces (4 oz)

1. Combine dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse until mixed.
2. Add butter and cream cheese and pulse until mixture starts to form a ball, usually 8 - 10 pulses.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface and pat into a 2 inch-thick disc. Wrap in saran wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.

Tomato Pie

1.5 pints of cherry tomatoes, large ones cut in half
½ onion, roughly chopped
½ stick of butter (4 tbsp)1 tbsp fresh thyme
½ tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
 
Optional: 

3/4 cup grated cheese - Gruyere or goat would work perfectly!

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. On a floured surface, roll out dough to ⅛ in thick and about 12 inches around. Don’t worry about a perfect circle here, rustic shapes work just fine. Place back into the refrigerator.
3. Place onions, with 2 tablespoons of butter, in a large pan on medium heat. Let caramelize, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
4. Add a salt and pepper to taste, sugar and thyme, cooking for another 5 minutes.
5. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into the pan and let melt. Add tomatoes and fold into butter to coat. Let cook for an additional 3 minutes, salt and pepper some more, and remove from heat.
6. After the tomato and onion mixture has cooled (10 minutes or so), remove dough from fridge and place on a baking sheet with edges. Pour filling into the center of the dough and gently fold over edges to hold vegetables in.
7. Bake for 40 minutes or until crust is golden and tomatoes start to burst. Sprinkle cheese on top and broil until melted and bubbling. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe: Garlic Scape Pesto

Moving away from the Union Square Green Market has been hard on us, but the “lemonade” is an excuse to join one of the many fabulous CSAs in South Berkshire County. (A little known fact: one of the first CSAs in America was established right here in Egremont, MA; Indian Line Farm was started by Robyn Van En, Jan Vander Tuin and a group of local community members in 1985.) Though it was a tough decision, we decided to go with a work-share at Laura Meister’s Farm Girl Farm, a farm we have admired from afar for years. Obviously we are thrilled to get our hands a little dirty and come home with fresh veg all the way through November. But we’re also excited to see where our weekly bag of goodies takes us and the recipes on this blog.

Sure enough, our first few shares of the year brought curly bundles of bright green garlic scape inspiration. While the first few batches were perfect grilled as a side dish or sauteed into pastas, we thought we would make a pesto out of the late-season scapes and slather it on a grilled chicken. Another selling point: other than the delectable Parmigiano from Rubiner's and the dry Rose Silka insisted on picking up, everything we needed for the meal was in our not-so-well-stocked pantry. A quick grill and a speedy spin of the food processor handed us a gorgeous summer dinner, plus extra pesto to freeze for later.

Garlic Scape Pesto

+ 1 bunch of garlic scapes
+ 1/3 cup pine nuts
+ 1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
+ Kosher salt and black pepper
+ 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus 1 tbs

1. Chop the scapes in to one inch lengths and sautee in a pan with a little olive oil.
2. When the scapes turn a vibrant dark green, and release their aroma, remove from the pan.
3. Puree the garlic scapes, pine nuts, Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a food processor until very finely chopped - pulsing works best. Then, with the motor running, slowly pour the oil through the opening. Season the pesto with salt and pepper to taste. Spread on everything!

The pesto keeps in the fridge for 1 week or frozen for a month.

To make our grilled chicken rub the pesto on a butterflied bird then grill as you normally would, “basting” with extra pesto as it cooks. The pesto would also be fabulous on pasta, or as the base of a salad dressing, dipping sauce or aioli.