Spinach Pesto

So we just got back from our big and wonderful family vacation to NYC and the Jersey Shore and I am writing about spinach pesto. I think it is funny that I have 1,100 photographs from our last two weeks travels, but what I have to share with you has nothing to do with that. Editing that many photos is a bit daunting, and I'm still deciding how to break it up and write about our time away. In the meantime I've been meaning to share my "recipe" for spinach pesto, and that is much easier to tackle. Also my sweet cousin Bethany has been nudging me to do so.

This really isn't a recipe, but more of my loose rememberance of how I throw this together...

I hadn't heard of spinach pesto before my friend Patty served it for lunch one day, telling me that when she doesn't have access to fresh basil, she substitutes fresh spinach. Brilliant. And I have to say that I actually prefer the flavor of spinach over basil (which can be a bit on the black licorice flavor spectrum, yuck), and spinach is a "super food", which means you should eat lots of this!

Patty gave me a loose list of ingredients that she uses and then I ran home to give it a try and just threw things together until it tasted good. This has become a favorite thing around our house and Evie asks for it! I make it often and started this latest batch before remembering that I should take pictures as I go so I could finally share this recipe.

Fresh spinach, salt, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and walnuts

On our vacation I realized the value of my food processor when I had to use a blender at the beach house instead. Wah! I know, such desperate circumstances right?! :) Anyway, the blender took 15 minutes to do what the food processor does in 30 seconds. But man it was creamy, more like spinach butter than pesto. :) So if you are patient and don't have a processor, by all means, bring in the blender.

 

 I can only fit about half of a large bag of spinach at first, with approximately 1/4 -1/3 cup of olive oil, 1/3 cup parmesan, 2 tsp. salt ( I like the coarse kind), and 2 handfuls of walnuts.

 Process until it looks like this.

 Then add the rest of the bag of spinach, ( I think it was a 1 lb. bag).

 Taste it with bread and adjust to your taste or texture. We like to spread it on toasted, crusty bread.

 Evie loves guacamole, so I got her to try the pesto by telling her it was like guacamole, but with bread instead of chips. She likes to dip her bread, Philip and I just slather it on.