This arugula pesto recipe is from my friend, Danila, who works as an Italian teacher for corporations. She got it from the chef at Barilla. I’ve talked about Danila on my blog before and she also has a place in my memoir since our daughters are best friends and we bought our first apartment from them completely by chance (based on an internet search).
Speaking of memoirs, the contest for four audio copies of Stars Upside Down has ended so scroll to the bottom to see the winners. I’ll also give a brief vision of my blog and author newsletter for 2019.
And since I’m sure you’re here for the pasta, let me get on with it!
Danila and a few friends planned a surprise party for my birthday last month and she served this dish. Ever since I put that first forkful in my mouth, I knew I had to share the recipe with you. This is the gluten-free pasta she used, and I like it because the fusilli is fatter than the version I usually use.
First, get a large pot of water boiling. I added a tablespoon of sea salt as there is no additional salt added to this recipe.
Then sauté a minced onion in a bit of olive oil and when the onion is soft and slightly brown, add 1 1/2 or 2 cups of cherry tomatoes cut in half (I used cocktail since the cherry tomatoes weren’t ripe) and 200-300 grams of Prosciutto.
If you’re making gluten-free, make sure the ham is labeled as such. And also check the pine nuts to make sure there’s no trace of gluten in those. Otherwise you’re good to go.
If you can multi-task, while the ham is getting crispy in the tomato-onion sauté, put 3/4 cup of pine nuts in the blender with 2 tablespoons olive oil, a large clove of garlic, and about 5 packed cups of fresh arugula.
When you start to blend it, you’ll notice that not much moves because there’s not a lot of moisture. Unless you have a magical blender, which I definitely do not. Start adding tablespoons of the water from the boiling pasta (which has the pasta starch and salt in it). I needed to add 18 tablespoons in order to make my pesto.
When the pesto has been blended perfectly and the pasta is drained, combine the pasta with the ham-tomato mixture.
Then put the pesto sauce in a flat bowl like this.
The recipe makes 4-6 full dinners, depending on how hungry you are, or 8 hearty entrées (appetizers). And it makes 2 cups of pesto so you’ll need to divide the number of people you’re serving by the amount of pesto you have. For instance, if you’re serving 6 people, 1/3 cup of pesto goes in the bottom of the plate.
It’s gorgeous right? My kids don’t like arugula, but they did like this pasta – except for the youngest. You put the pasta on top of the sauce and let each guest turn it to mix in the pesto.
And of course you’ll want to add parmesan cheese!
Can’t you just taste it? Here! Have a bite!
I know, I know. I’m torturing you.
You’ll just have to make it yourself!
So here’s the recipe :
- 400 grams uncooked pasta, which is just under a pound but you can use that.
- 1 tablespoon sea salt for the boiling water
- 1 onion
- 200-300 grams Italian ham (1/2 lb)
- 250 grams cherry tomatoes, cut in half (about 1.5-2 cups)
- ¾ cups pine nuts
- 125 grams arugula (5 cups packed)
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 18 tablespoons hot salty water from pasta
- parmesan cheese, optional
- Cook pasta according to directions
- Sauté onion, then add ham and tomatoes at the same time and cook until ham is slightly crispy.
- Put pine nuts, garlic, oil in blender and top with arugula.
- Turn blender on and add 18 tablespoons of hot water from the boiling pasta, one spoon at a time to be sure it's not too watery.
- Drain the pasta and combine with ham mixture.
- Place some pesto on the bottom of a flat bowl and put the pasta on top.
- Serve hot and let each guest turn their own pasta. Top with parmesan (optional).
Now that we have dinner out of the way, let’s talk shop. First are the winners of the audio version of Stars Upside Down. Congratulations to …
Now for the bit of housekeeping. I may write another post after Christmas (a light one with photos and family news) but I’m not sure. It’s been a stressful autumn with the launch of my French memoir, my contemporary romance, and the final revisions due for the Regency to come out next March. I want to take time to spend with my family and also allow my creative juices – which are spent – to make a comeback.
My plan is, starting in January of 2019, to post on this blog every other Wednesday, and send out an author newsletter on the alternate weeks. The main reason is that it takes most of the day to do a blog post, and almost as long to do a newsletter (or at least a good chunk of the day) and that means less time for book writing, which I’m slowly coming to consider as my main source of income.
If you’re curious about what it means to subscribe to my blog versus my newsletter, let me explain. My blog mainly contains posts on faith, recipes, or French tourism. My newsletter has more personal news in addition to the books (my own and written by other authors) that I promote each week. If you want to sign up for my author newsletter, you may do so here. And if you haven’t yet read any of my books, the purchase links are right there on the sidebar of this blog.
Merry Christmas!
Jennie
