Spinach & Roasted Garlic Pesto

Internet is great. Yes, I know you all know that and that its random, but the awesomeness of the world wide web keeps hitting on my head at all random times. How else would I have learnt the existence of the various types of pesto and ideas for all those different pastas that I crave for?

When I got into this wide world of pasta-making, I thought pesto was made with basil. That’s all. I know that it’s the traditional pesto, and purist Italian food-lovers will even go ahead and say that Basil pesto is the only pesto that exists. Rest of them are all just mixes or silly dips, but not a pesto.

But then, no matter what you call it with, a rose always smells good. No matter what the ingredient of a pesto is, it always renders a beautiful taste to the pasta. Especially if it has garlic in it, no? :)

More so, if it’s a healthy ingredient. There… my words of wisdom for the day is done! :)

This is one such pesto recipe that I bumped upon. The South Indian in me will call this a chutney, but I will call this a pesto, to pay my due respect to SunshineAndSmile (a great blog, and great photographs!), from where I adapted this chutney.

I couldn’t imagine a chutney with the ingredients not being cooked/steamed/blanched. Yes, it’s a mind-block and I went ahead with it. I steamed the spinach leaves in a tiny bit of oil. And I dry roasted the garlic cloves. I also added just one green chilli to make the pesto stand by itself… if ever there was A War of The Pesto, I didn’t want this one to lose out! :-P

Recipe Adapted/Inspired from – Spinach Pesto with Roasted Garlic

Spinach & Roasted Garlic Pesto
Level – Easy
Preparation time – 15 min

Ingredients[Makes 1 C]
Spinach leaves, washed – 10 bunches or two fistfuls
Green Chilli – 1
Garlic cloves – 6-10
Salt – To taste
Olive oil – 1 Tsp

Instructions
Heat the oil in the pan and add the washed spinach leaves and green chilli to this.
Stir so that the leaves are coated with the olive oil.
Close the lid of the pan and let this steam for 5 min.
Dry roast the garlic cloves on a medium flame for 5 min, and let this cool.
Grind the steamed spinach leaves with the garlic cloves and salt.
Store in a cool, dry container in the refrigerator.

Use this as a dip for chips, or as a pesto in pasta or lasagna (recipe coming up soon).