Recipe 7- Penne with Baby Spinach Pesto

Recipe 7- Penne with Baby Spinach Pesto 

Good Morning to All! 

I am starting off my saturday morning blogging and drinking coffee. I apologize for my delay in posting my last 2 recipes. We have had some medical appointments for our youngest daughter Emilie and my mind has been elsewhere. 

I have to say though, taking on this challenge has given me a breath of fresh air. It has been such a stress reliever to get into my kitchen and just COOK! 

That is the main reason I took on this personal challenge. 

I think everyone needs a little "getaway" from everyday life and I find that through cooking and being in my Kitchen, so I dearly thank Chef Michael Smith everyday for being my guide in the kitchen and helping me through some difficult times. 

I encourage everyone to find that 'one' thing for yourself.. whether its cooking or a hobby! 

So to start off this recipe, I have to say that this may be the FIRST RE-DO! 

As you will see in the pics, it turned out edible.. but I am convinced that I messed this one up haha! 

I shopped for my ingredients like usual and had a good laugh at my bulk food store when I purchased the pine nuts for this recipe. The girl at the register ACTUALLY asked me " do you still want these?" I looked over at the computer screen.... and: 

jkhdfjashfdg;basfjkgn;fhgsa !?! 

FOR PINE NUTS!?!? 

keep in mind that I only needed  1 cup of pine nuts, and this was the PRICE! 

I laughed it off and gathered my sack of 'gold nuggets" and headed home. 

I later told my husband how much these little babies were.. AFTER we ate the pasta LOL! 

For this recipe, I gathered some olive oil, pine nuts, salt, parmesan cheese, fresh spinach and some Penne pasta. For the pasta, I was intrigued that Jaime Oliver had his own line in Sobeys and decided why not have 2 Chefs inspiration in my kitchen today?

To start off, I washed my spinach in my fancy salad spinner. If you don't have one of these, GET ONE! I have been using it to spin ALL of the produce I wash... and its totally fun too! 

Seriously, I can not believe how GREEN this spinach was. I did nothing to enhance these photos, so keep that in mind when you see how crazy green my pesto turned out. 

Next I pulled out my blender and put in all my ingredients. 

And at this point, is where I think my re-do may come in. Chef Michael says to use a food processor, which I do not have. I thought, well my blender should work! WRONG.. 

it doesn't work and in the end I think it lead to in my opinion, the failure of my recipe. 

So to start off, in went oil, pine nuts, garlic and some salt. 

BLEND. 

 Ok, this looks alright.. next went in the cheese...

Looking good.... next up the spinach... now here is where the trouble began. 

How on earth do you get the spinach to chop up nicely in a blender? 

Ya... I didn't think that through at the beginning.. till NOW! 

As you can see, it did puree eventually.. after sticking a wooden spoon in and jamming the spinach down towards the blade. DONT TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS

No only did we get pine nuts.. we got some "pine shavings" lol 

This is the result of my spoon in my blender. 

So what did  I learn? When Chef Michael says use a food processor, it doesn't mean a blender. Guess what my next kitchen purchase will be? 

THAT.. and another spoon! haha :) 

So after all of that, I was left with some radioactive looking paste. I have a feeling that it was not suppose to be this consistency. I think I over over blended it in my attempt at jamming down all of the spinach. 

Next up, Jaime Oliver showed up and we made some pasta. 

Just kidding, I wish! 

But seriously this pasta was fantastic! and hey, that packaging went with the theme of my recipe! 

After 11 mins, we had some wonderful hot pasta! Chef Michael instructs you to leave about a 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta water in the pot. You then mix in your pesto and the hot water helps make everything mix nicely. 

So I have to say, even though I thought the consistency was a little 'off' on this one, 

it tasted AMAZING! It was so fresh and full of flavour! 

The flavours of the fresh spinach, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic really came through and worked very well together. 

We all had seconds on this one! 

This pesto was very creamy and really coated the pasta well.

I will FOR SURE, be taking another swing at this one to see if a food processor makes the consistency a little better. 

This recipe had to be one of the quickest for prep time. As fast as you can boil a pot of pasta, you can have the fresh pesto ready for your cooked noodles. 

Simple and easy! Perfect for the crazy week nights when you just want something quick! 

Hope you all are having a wonderful saturday morning! 

As always, my compliments to BOTH chefs today and cheers to you, my friends! 

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