A lot on her plate: Kale + almond pesto linguine

In conclusion to this cooking series, I decided to take on one of the harder recipes or at least one that takes more steps. In chapter 4 was where I knew I would find bigger meals, and that's where I discovered the kale and almond pesto linguine recipe. "It's delicious, super-simple to whizz up, economical, and will completely negate any guilt you might feel (you shouldn't) about eating big old bowl of pasta." (Birkett pg. 133) This recipe require quite of bit of preparation, so I got the groceries in the afternoon and started cooking early in the evening.

 

Ingredients:

-3 spring onions roughly chopped

-4 garlic cloves peeled but left whole

-80g of curly kale

-1 1/2 cups of flaked almonds

-4 tablespoons of olive oil

-35g of flat-leaf parsley

-35g of basil leaves

-pinch of red chili flakes

-1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice

-25g of grated parmesan

-sea salt and ground pepper

-75g of linguine

The first job was to sterilize a jar through washing it in a hot dishwasher cycle and drying it in the oven for 10 minutes. I just used an old cherry jar for this. while that was in the oven drying, I washed the kale, parsley, and spring onions. I then chopped up the kale, garlic, and spring onions into coarse pieces.

  

Next, I brought a large pan of salted water to a boil, adding the onions and garlic. I cooked them for 3 minutes until they were soft, then added the kale. "Add the kale and cook for no more than 40 seconds, until it's bright green and floppy. Don't overcook it as it will lose that lovely bright green color." (Birkett pg. 133)

I then lifted the kale out of the pan and onto a plate, taking the onion and garlic pieces out as well and adding them to the food processor along with the olive oil, parsley, basil, lemon juice, and chili flakes I had previously put into the processor. I then blitzed it a couple times until it formed a thick paste.

Once finished with this, I started up another pot of boiling water, and added the linguine pasta. Once it reached al dente, I put it in a strainer to get rid of excess water.

I portioned the pasta for two, combining the pasta and pesto sauce together with some parmesan to garnish. I then put the excess pesto in the jar and put it in the fridgerator to use for another time.

I think that out of all the recipe's I've made from this book, this one was the most gratifying to make. I've enjoyed pesto before and have always wanted to make my own. Looking back on this experience, I'm glad that I picked this book to cook from, as it taught me a lot about choosing the right ingredients, and how to incorporate great ingredients in your daily meals.

Q: Looking back,what was the most gratifying meal you've made or have helped make?