Spinach Pesto

I’ve determined that the bags that they sell fresh spinach in cannot possibly be consumed by one person before it goes bad, unless that one person is Popeye. Every time I buy spinach for a recipe, I end up with a ton extra, and it ends up getting thrown away, which I really feel intensely guilty about (product of a solid Catholic upbringing, probably).

This week, I FINALLY solved my extra spinach problem. I thought, “hey, look at all those fresh green leaves that will probably go bad in the next couple days…I should make a pesto!” Because of my pesto addiction, my first thought when confronting any ingredient is “can I make that a pesto?” Anyway, I did it, and it was phenomenal.

Ingredients
4 cups loosely-packed fresh baby spinach
1 cup fresh basil leaves
3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (use judgement on this one)
Salt to taste

Instructions
Combine spinach leaves, basil leaves, garlic, and pine nuts in large food processor.

Blend until all ingredients form a well-processed mixture.

Add in your olive oil a small amount at a time while processing until well blended. Pay attention to your consistency and use more/less so that it is smooth, but not runny.

Add in parmesan cheese and continue to blend until your pesto mixture is smooth and has achieved your desired consistency. Do a taste test, and add more olive oil to make it smoother, more cheese to make it thicker. Add salt to taste.

Spread on toast, tofu, eggs, pasta, quinoa, rice, risotto, tomatoes, roasted veggies, etc., etc. I could go on forever here. This pesto is great on anything! The spinach pesto is a little bit less obtrusive than your traditional basil pesto, so it is a little bit more versatile and you can spice it up.

I placed the rest of mine in a tight ziploc bag in the freezer so that I don’t have to use it up in the next few days. Saved a ton of spinach and transformed it into something even more delicious! Boom!