Pesto in a Quiche

I love making quiche for dinner and Sweetie loves eating it. The great thing about quiche is that you can put lots of different things in it and so it's a creative kind of pie.

This time I had some grilled chicken leftovers to use up, plus a few spears of fresh asparagus. I decided to do a flavor combination that has worked well for me in the past for a sandwich...chicken and pesto with roasted red pepper and Swiss cheese. I put all of those things in, plus some caramelized onion, the asparagus, and a couple large bella mushrooms, sliced. It was delicious, so I want to share with you! 

Pesto Quiche with Grilled Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Serves 4 - 6

1 9-inch pie shell, blind baked at 425 degrees F for 10-12 minutes (use favorite pie dough recipe or pre-made)
1/3 cup caramelized yellow onion
1 cup Swiss cheese, cut into ¼ inch dice
1 cup grilled chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 stalks fresh asparagus, ends snapped off, spears cut into 1-inch pieces
2 large mushrooms, sliced
3 eggs (or equivalent egg substitute)
1 ½ cups evaporated milk  or light cream
1/3 cup prepared pesto
¼ teaspoon salt
dash pepper
5 or 6 strips prepared roasted red peppers
2 tablespoons pine nuts

Blind bake the pie shell in a preheated 400 degree oven, then set aside to cool.

Reduce heat setting on oven to 350 degrees F.

Caramelize the onion with a light coating of olive oil in a small crock pot or in a skillet and let cool .

Sprinkle the bottom of the pie shell with the onions and half the Swiss cheese, distributing evenly. Top with the chicken and the asparagus, then the rest of the Swiss cheese. Place mushroom slices around the outer edges of the quiche fillings. Set crust with fillings aside.

In a bowl, beat the eggs lightly with the pesto, then add the milk and beat with a fork to combine, add the salt and pepper and beat with a fork or whisk to combine.

Pour the egg/milk mixture over the ingredients in the pie shell.  There may be too much milk mixture if pie pan is shallow - don't overfill, to avoid filling running over.  Add the red pepper strips in a nice pattern on the top. Sprinkle with the pine nuts.

Put the quiche on a baking sheet. Place in the preheated oven and bake 30-45 minutes, or until set and lightly browned. (I find that setting on a parchment-lined small baking sheet is a good idea in case some of the filling spills over.) Cool for 10 minutes before cutting to serve.

Quick Dinner

 
Sometimes you need or want to fix dinner quickly. I was lucky this evening to have some leftover rotisserie chicken, some ricotta tortellini, some pesto sauce, some pine nuts from the freezer, and a few veggies on hand. Put together they made a delicious meal in a very short time. Sweetie was a very happy guy and said I can make this any time.

The first thing to do is to put a big pot of water on to boil to cook the tortellini. While that's coming to a boil, toast the pine nuts in a large skillet. It only takes a minute or two. Set those aside and chop some onion - I used green onion, but yellow or white works, too. Spray the same skillet you used to cook the pine nuts with a little olive oil, then add the onions and sauté, stirring often. While those are cooking, chop some tomato...I used about a half dozen grape tomatoes. Add those to the onions, stir, and let them begin to sauté, too. Cube into bite size pieces the cooked chicken. (You could also use cooked turkey, cooked Italian sausages.) 

By now the water should be really boiling. Add some salt, if desired, and then the tortellini. Stir them every few minutes to cook the pasta part evenly, but be gentle so the fillings stays inside.

Add the cubed chicken to the onion-tomato mixture and stir to combine. Turn the heat to the lowest setting, cover and let it all heat up.

Get ready to drain the pasta when it is cooked al dente and cook about a cup of frozen peas in the microwave. Check the pasta and when it is ready, drain and put into a large bowl. Add a big scoop of pesto sauce and stir to combine with the pasta. Add the chicken-onion-tomato mixture and the pine nuts and stir gently to combine.

Serve at once with the hot peas on the side.

I know that there are no actual measurements for this recipe. If you feel you need them, make a comment asking for that and I'll try to figure out the amounts I used, O.K?

Pesto with My Garden's Basil

Pesto made with pine nuts and basil is a classic sauce for a good reason. For one thing, it smells heavenly! The bright green is enticing, too. Best of all are the robust flavors. Since I'm still not eating cheeses, I made my sauce without Parmesan cheese, but I did add nutritional yeast, plus lemon juice and zested lemon peel. Those added some complexity and the lemon added zing. 

My basil started to flower, so it was time to harvest...perhaps past time. Once rinsed, I stripped the leaves off the stem (even tiny ones) and didn't use the flowers. You need a cup, packed, so that's a lot of basil.

One of the keys to this recipe is to use a food processor and to scrape down the sides frequently so that all of the ingredients are incorporated.

This is an intensely flavored sauce, so use sparingly at first until you are familiar with the intensity.

I lightly coated cooked tortellini with this pesto and it was soooo delicious!

No Cheese Pesto

1 cup, packed, fresh basil leaves...stems discarded
2/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1teaspoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon lemon zest
juice from a lemon
1/3 cup olive oil, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor bowl fitted with the steel blade place the basil, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon zest and lemon juice. Process until fairly smooth, scraping down sides as needed. With machine running, use the feed tube and add the olive oil in a thin stream until pesto is to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once.

Leftover can be stored in a small glass jar. Pour a little additional olive oil gently to create a thin layer of oil on top of the pesto. This keep air out and prevents the pesto from turning brown.

Fresh Basil in Pesto

Most years I plant basil seeds in a wide and somewhat shallow planter. Some years the basil does well and fills up the planter. Some years I get a few spindly plants. This year the basil is happy and the planter is packed and the plants are getting tall. Time to use them and a great way to use basil is in pesto. Normally I'd make a mixture of basil, pine nuts,olive oil and parmesan cheese, with some salt and pepper added to taste.

Now that cheese is in my past, I decided to try making it without parmesan. I used fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to add some zing and some almond flour for body. Of course the star is the basil, which is as it should be. We had it mixed with some potato gnocchi that were a bit unstable so that half turned to mashed potatoes when heated in simmering water. It was a new brand of gnocchi. Wonderful in taste but I think I'll go back to the more stable kind.

The pesto was just right...lots of basil flavor heightened by the lemon and mellowed by the nuts. I toasted the pine nuts a little too much but with all that basil you would never know. The olive oil wasn't the real fancy kind used for finishing...it would be wasted for the same reason...it's all about the basil. You could taste the lemon, mostly as an afternote. A touch of salt was necessary. There is still enough in the fridge for another pasta or gnocchi dish...YAY!

No Cheese Pesto

1 cup, packed, fresh basil leaves...stems discarded
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
juice from a lemon
1/3 cup olive oil, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor bowl fitted with the steel blade place the basil, pine nuts, almond flour, lemon zest and lemon juice. Process until fairly smooth, scraping down sides as needed. With machine running, use the feed tube and add the olive oil in a thin stream until pesto is to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once.

Leftover can be stored in a small glass jar. Pour a little additional olive oil gently to create a thin layer of oil on top of the pesto. This keep air out and prevents the pesto from turning brown.

Using Sweetie's Sandwich Press

Sweetie loves panini type sandwiches and recently bought a sandwich press that is similar. I think true panini presses put grill marks on the sandwich and this one has flat plates, so you get a good golden brown crust but no grill marks. It is electric and very light and we even found a place to store it right below the microwave oven.

Today I decided to see if I could concoct a sandwich for lunch that would use up some grilled chicken breast. I put a very light coating of butter on two sides of the bread, then stacked them butter sides together. I built the sandwich on the top, unbuttered side. First I spread on a thin coat of pesto, then crumbled on some feta cheese. This was topped by some roasted red pepper and then the chicken breast. It was thick, so I sliced it through the middle and put each piece on half the sandwich. Ready for the grill.

It was the work of only a few minutes to use the sandwich press to not only grill the bread (buttered sides), but to flatten the sandwich, too. I love my grilled sandwiches flattened.

The result was delicious! Melted feta, warm pesto and pepper and chicken, crunchy toasted bread on the outside. Easy and fun.

For those who are following things, Sweetie is now over his cold/flu and out mowing the grass around the house. I'm almost over it (just a slight cough left) and I got in some weeding today. Eye glasses are ordered in should be here in a couple of weeks. This week I'll be posting a wonderful bread (and I'm the Kitchen of the Month, so I got to choose the recipe) on the 16th and a delicious cake on the 20th, so be sure to check back on those days.

Of Pesto and Chicken

Pesto is one of my favorite flavors. There is something wonderful about the combination of basil, pine nuts, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. It can liven up rice, pasta, a baked potato and all manner of entrees. And that basil smells fantastic, too.

It was cold and rainy today, so I stayed inside most of the day. I am so thankful that it rained...we have been having a terrible drought this winter and usually winter is when we get most of the water for the year. It also made it nice to fool around in the kitchen trying out a new recipe, with the rain pattering against the kitchen windows.

This recipe started off life as a sweet crostata with fresh grapes and golden raisins and a nut crust. The rustic look which is achieved by folding the outer couple of inches the crust over the filling is a favorite of mine, but I'd never tried it with a nut crust before. The filling is interesting, too, because it is based on whipped egg whites.

I decided that I wanted to change the recipe around to a savory crostata, filled with a pesto infused whipped egg white filling and then covered with sauteed onions, golden raisins and Parmesan coated chicken pieces. Since I was going with sunny flavors of the Med, I changed the dough to use pine nuts instead of walnuts or pecans of almonds.

The crust didn't turn out quite like I had hoped...it tended to fall apart while I was working on it...but it tasted wonderful once baked and the filling was excellent. We had a slice for dinner with some steamed mixed vegetables and Sweetie was very happy, especially since he was able to watch the Super Bowl while I played in the kitchen. We did take a nice walk with Pi during half time when there was a break in the rain, so it was a pretty nice day all around. Guess I pretty easy to please.

Nut Pastry Dough

     

1/3 cup walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pine nuts or pecans
1 1/2  cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2  teaspoons granulated sugar
3/4  teaspoon salt
1 1/2  tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
2 1/2  tablespoons walnut oil
5-6  tablespoons cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

.
Spread nuts in a pie pan and bake for 5 - 7 minutes, or until fragrant. Let cool

In a food processor, combine nuts, flour, sugar, and salt; process until nuts are finely chopped. Add butter and process until incorporated. Transfer to a large bowl.

Drizzle oil over flour mixture. Use your fingertips to rub oil into the mixture. On tablespoon at a time, add water and mix with a fork until dough is crumbly and holds together when pressed.

If making a single crust, gently form dough into a flattened disk. If making a double crust, divide dough into two pieces, 1 slightly larger than the other, and form each into a disk. (The dough will keep, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Return dough to room temperature before rolling.)

Chicken Pesto Crostata

1/4 cup pine nuts
1 recipe  pine nut Pastry Dough (see above)
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/3 cup prepared pesto
1/4 cup golden raisins
2 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cut into small bite sized pieces
pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon milk
Grated Parmesan cheese for dusting crust

Spread pine nuts in a oiled pan and bake in preheated 350 degree F. oven for about 5 minutes or until fragrant (can do this at same time nuts are being baked for pie dough if making same day). Alternatively, pine nuts can be toasted in a large cast iron skilled, shaking pan often. Let cool. Finely chop and set aside.

Raise oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Place two overlapping sheets of plastic wrap or a wide sheet of parchment paper on a work surface. Set dough in center and cover with two more overlapping sheets of plastic wrap or another wide sheet of parchment paper. Roll dough into a 12-inch circle. Remove top sheets of plastic (or top parchment) and invert dough on to a large baking sheet with sides that has been lightly oiled or coated with nonstick spray. (I put mine on a large piece of parchment paper.) Pull off rest of plastic or the other sheet parchment. Sprinkle semolina (or cornmeal) over the crust, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Set aside.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the onion in the olive oil, stirring frequently, until onion is light golden brown, about 7 - 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small bowl, beat egg whites and salt with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/3 cup grated Parmesan and beat until shiny. With a rubber spatula, fold pine nut mixture and pesto into meringue until thoroughly combined.

Drop spoonfuls of meringue onto crust and gently spread over semolina. Sprinkle raisins over meringue.

Distribute caramelized onions evenly over meringue.

In a bowl, toss the chicken pieces with the remaining 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese and pepper, to taste. Arrange chicken over raisins, onions and meringue, distributing evenly. Fold border of crust over filling.

Brush crust with 1 tablespoon milk and dust with some grated Parmesan.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until crust is golden and grapes are puffed. With 2 large spatulas, transfer crostata to a large platter. Let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Makes 8 servings.

A Little This...A Little That

One of the things I find about the post-holiday season is that hidden in the depths of the fridge there are remnants of meals gone by. It was hard to keep up with all the goodies, especially when well-meaning helpers put them away after a meal and then arranged them, say, behind the large container of grated Parmesan cheese, where they were hard to spot. A few days ago I hunted out quite a few small containers of this and that and put together a nice lunch for two with some of them.

The first find was a good sized amount of cooked rice. I had added some lemon when it cooked, so that was a great place to start. There was a small head of broccoli, so I cut that up into florets and steamed them. I mixed the rice with some pesto I found on the door and heated that up. The last addition was the best; I cut up the last of the smoked salmon into squares, put it on top of the heated rice, and heated that in the microwave for just one minute. With the broccoli placed around the sides of the bowl, it was a lovely looking dish. There was just enough for two lunch sized plates of the mixture and Sweetie as delighted to enjoy it with me while he took a break from installing the new sink in the studio.

Did you find nice ways to use up leftovers after the holidays?

Smoked Salmon with Pesto Rice and Broccoli
Serves 2

1 1/2 cups cooked rice
3 tablespoons prepared pesto (or use more if you desire)
1 cup broccoli florets, steamed (small stems can be used, too)
salt and pepper to taste
2 oz. smoked salmon, cut into bite sized pieces

In a medium bowl mix the cooked rice and the pesto. Heat in the microwave for about 2 minutes, until hot throughout. You may want to stir the mixture after one minute.
Steam the broccoli florets with a small amount of water until bright green and just tender when pierced with the tip of a knife. Drain and keep hot.
Place the pieces of salmon on top of the hot rice and microwave for one more minute. Arrange the hot broccoli around the sides of the bowl and serve at once.

Pesto to the Rescue

Everything is going so well with the entry project that I'm not really complaining, but, gee it takes a lot of time to do construction!

Yesterday we removed the old door frame, along with the expandable foam insulation, flashing above, old shims and tar paper. Sweetie did most of the heavy stuff and I scraped off old insulation and did the demo on the flashing and tar paper. Took a good chunk of the day. Thank heavens for things like pre-packaged chili seasoning and already made pesto.

 Last night we had my well-loved chili, but the night we had that awesome cheese and cherry tomato salad, we also had a super quick chicken pesto pasta dish. Could never have gotten both on the table without that Fircrest pesto. There were also the quick-fix helpers of fresh pasta from the store, frozen already-grilled chicken, and our own zucchini. Zucchini are so easy to prepare...no peeling!

So while the pasta water came to a boil, the sliced zucchini browned in a cast iron skillet. Once the zucchini came out, in went the frozen chicken strips and chunks. I let them brown, then removed them to sit with the zucchini while I browned some pine nuts. Once the pasta was done and drained, it was easy to put the hot pasta, green pesto, and a little of the pasta cooking water into a bowl and stir to coat the pasta with the pesto. A quick re-heat for a minute in the microwave made sure that the squash and chicken were hot. Into the past bowl they went, along with the pine nuts. After a quick stir to combine it all, I served it up and we enjoyed a fairly gourmet entrée that had taken only about 15 minutes to make.

It's a good recipe for hot weather, too, because you don't really heat up the kitchen much in 15 minutes. If we weren't having that salad with it I would have tossed some halved cherry tomatoes into the pasta at the end.

Pronto Pesto Chicken Pasta with Zucchini and Pine Nuts
Serves 2 - 4
1/2 cup prepared pesto (or to taste) at room temperature
1 package (8 oz.) fresh fettuccini
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 medium zucchini, ends trimmed, cut into slices
2 cups chicken strips and chunks, pre-cooked and grilled, thawed if frozen
3-4 tablespoons pine nuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Stir pesto to mix in oil. Set aside.

In a large pot bring water to a boil.

While water is coming to a boil, heat the oil in a large skillet. Brown the zucchini slices in the oil over medium-high heat, turning so that all sides brown as much as possible. Remove from skillet when brown and set aside. If pasta water is boiling, add fresh pasta and set timer for 10 minutes.

Without cleaning the skillet, add the chicken and brown it, about 5 minutes, stirring often. When browned and heated through, remove from skillet and set aside.

Without cleaning the skillet, add pine nuts to the skilled and, stirring frequently, brown them. Take care not because they can go from golden brown to burnt very quickly. Remove from skillet and set aside.

By now the pasta should be cooked. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta. Place squash and chicken on a microwave safe plate and microwave on high for 1 minutes.

Place drained pasta in a large, wide bowl. Add the pesto and a tablespoon of the cooking water. Stir. Add more water if necessary so that pesto coats the pasta. Add the heated squash and chicken and the pine nuts. Toss to combine. Serve at once.

Pesto Green and a Link to St. Pat's Cake

It's instructive to look back over a few years of posts, both to see the rise and fall and rise again of my enthusiasm for blogging, for cooking and baking, for the joys of the seasons and to re-discover old recipes. A few days ago I started looking for my favorite chocolate cake recipe, the 86 Proof Chocolate Bundt Cake, a perfect cake for St. Patrick's Day if made with Irish Whiskey, and ended up spending a pleasant half hour or so looking over contiguous posts. There were reminders of pleasures enjoyed and challenges faced as well as the joy of discovering other bloggers.


A lot can be learned by thinking back on the large and small challenges that life throws at one. At the moment I feel like the water in the eddy behind the rock in the stream...taking a short breather in a quiet place. It's far more pleasant than I'd imagined. While getting on with the seemingly endless weeding as I prepare for the new garden year, I have time to think and to dream and to try out new ideas in my head where they are easily turned over and just as easily discarded if not just what I want. Re-potting the seedlings into larger pots is another task that allows for dreaming time. With the kitchen remodel in the dreaming stages you can imagine where my thoughts are going.

Returning to the many posts that have filled this blog, there have clearly been some dreams, particularly baking dreams, that have been fulfilled. What a lot of recipes have been tried and printed over the years! There are some that have become a regular part of our meals, but many that I tried once and then forgot about. I noticed that there seem to be very few recipes from the Comfort Food cookbook, so it may be time soon to get some of those up. My favorite Guest Blogger, No Handle, will be featured early next week, too. Lately there is less baking and more cooking in my life as I try to change my diet to keep from having those nasty stones. That doesn't mean that no baking will happen, just less frequently.

For today I give you a recipe filled with fresh broccoli and squash and leftovers. I threw it together when the garden was calling my name and every minute in the kitchen seemed one too many. If you have to cook the rice (I used leftovers) it will take longer. If you don't have already cooked chicken, either, then you may as well keep this tucked away for another day when you do have some of those leftovers, too. Prepared pesto is readily available around here in every grocery store. All I really had to do was to lightly cook the broccoli and squash with some parsley. The rest was re-heating and mixing together. It did make a nice, warm, savory one dish meal. I love the mixture of the flavors of pesto, chicken, and broccoli. Next time I might throw in some roasted red pepper strips, too. Sometimes leftovers can be quickly embellished with fresh foods and become a real treat.

Pesto Rice with Chicken and Broccoli and Squash

1 cup cooked rice (I used brown but any kind should be OK)
3 tablespoons prepared pesto
1/2 cup precooked chicken, in large dice
1/2 cup or so fresh broccoli, cut into florets
1/2 medium zucchini squash, cut into coins and halved
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
pepper to taste

1. Heat the rice in a large heatproof bowl in the microwave until heated through. Remove from the microwave and add the pesto. Stir to distribute the pesto evenly. Set aside.

2. While the rice is heating, steam the broccoli, squash and parsley until barely cooked through, about 2 minutes. Drain. Add to the pesto rice. Stir to combine. Cover to keep warm.

3. Once the rice is cooked, re-heat the chicken in the microwave in a small dish. Once hot, add to the warm rice mixture. Taste for seasonings and add pepper (and salt, if necessary). Serve at once. Can be garnished with more parsley, toasted pine nuts, warmed roasted pepper strips, etc. Serves 1-2.

Summer Salad Time

After a nice cool spring, we felt some heat today, so for dinner I decided to make a nice cool salad. There is nothing amazing about this salad...you have probably made one like it yourself on occasion, but i think it's a fine idea to write out the recipe so I have it the next time I want a good, easy, quick but delicious dinner salad. We had it with some fresh, juicy Silver Queen corn on the cob.

I'm not too crazy about summer hot weather, but I love the clean fresh flavors of summer foods! I used a combination of field greens salad mix and baby spinach for the greens. The warm chicken contrasts nicely with the chill, crips greens

Summer Supper Salad

serves 2

Big bowl of mixed salad greens - enough for two people

1/2 large yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 tomato, cut in half, each half cut in wedges, then the wedges halved
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
garlic salt
balsamic pesto dressing (recipe below)

Toss the greens pepper slices and tomato wedges gently to mix. Set aside in fridge to stay cool.

In a large cast iron or non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon canola or olive oil.

If the chicken breasts are too thick to cook evenly, butterfly them to even out the thickness. Sprinkle lightly with garlic salt.

Saute' the chicken breasts in the hot oil until lightly browned on one side, about 2-3 minutes, then turn the breasts and cover the pan. Lower the heat and cook for another 3 minutes. Check center to see if they are cooked. Cook another minute uncovered if necessary to fully cook. Slice the cooked chicken in bite sized pieced.

Toss the salad greens with the dressing. Arrange a large serving on each plate and top with the warm chicken, dividing the chicken evenly between the two plates. Serve at once.

Balsamic Pesto Dressing

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon prepared pesto

Place all ingredients in a jar and top with a tightly sealing lid (I use a pint canning jar and lid). Shake well to mix the ingredients. Let sit at least five minutes for flavors to meld. Shake vigorously right before pouring on salad. Can be made ahead. Will keep in refrigerator at least a week.