Garden fresh Arugula Pesto!

Ok, So I’m a little bit late in posting this… but over the summer I harvested all of our arugula and made arugula pesto!

I would have made lots of salads, but the arugula was really small and incredibly spicy.  I had some very kind family who helped me out by planting the arugula for me, and they planted the plants in their entirety within the soft planters the came in.  I know it “says” you can do that, but it definitely stunted the plants’ growth.  they hardly grew very big at all, and when I took them out, there were very few roots that grew past the planter.  So always make sure you take the plants out of those brown planter thingies!

Anyways, I did get some yield out of my 12 plants, and I made pesto out of it, which was pretty yummy!

I unfortunately cant find the exact recipe… but it was basically arugula, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, lemon zest and lemon.  I also added some salt and pepper.  Oh and of course, extra virgin olive oil.

It was pretty good!  The only thing I would do differently next time is put less pine nuts, because they tempered the arugula a little too much.  I felt like I wanted more of the arugula bite in there.

But all in all it turned out tasting good…

and I enjoyed eating it over pasta!

YUM! (this is protein enriched wheat pasta, so it actually has a good serving of protein in there..not just carbs)

Did any of you make any fun new garden inspired dishes this summer?