This week for The Kids Cook Monday, we made pesto.
I've mentioned it multiple times on the blog, we love it as a sandwich spread (mix a bit of pesto with a bit of cream cheese and use in lieu of mayo), and we love it as an addition to chicken or tuna salad (add a tsp or two with the mayo for great flavor), and it works great as a dressing in a cold pasta salad. All of these are awesome for bentos. And of course, we like it just with regular hot pastas too.
We typically make our own, but I'm not against buying it jarred in a pinch. It's a great cooking with kids experiment, you'll just need the ingredients and a good mini food processor/chopper. They can just add the ingredients and pulse till smooth, then stir into the hot pasta.
Simple Pesto for Kids:
3 cups chopped basil
1 cup evoo
2 cloves minced garlic (or a few heaping teaspoons of chopped garlic)
1 cup parmesan
1/2 cup pine nuts
***The most important part is to get the previous ingredients processed smoothly, before adding the next one***
In the chopper, process the basil till smooth & kind of paste-y, add a tsp or so of the oil to help.
Add garlic, process.
Add in parmesan, process.
Add pine nuts, process (watch to get these chopped well).
Mix rest of olive oil and continue to process until smooth.
Serve over hot pasta, refrigerate the rest for later.
Sorry no pics today, camera battery was dead and my iPhone pics did not turn out. Just trust me, it looked like pesto.
Don't forget, bidding for a starter bento kit to benefit earthquake relief in Japan is going on (use keyword bento4japan for all auctions).
And the giveaway for a Tangled dvd set runs through tomorrow.
I think kids in the kitchen is a fantastic way to get them involved with trying out different types of food. I have not tried pesto with them yet, but will definitely have to give this recipe a try!
ReplyDeleteIt's one of our favorites, and I love that it doesn't need the stove. F can pretty much make it on her own (she's 8).
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