Tilapia with Pesto and Cacio e Pepe

 

Hello. My name is Katy, and I am a month behind in blogging. I thought I could get away with this, since zero people read my blog... but alas, I have been found out. 

Anyway, sometime back in April I made tilapia with pesto. The pesto was super yummy and flavorful which was a good thing because the tilapia was BLAND without it. I usually love tilapia, but I just haven't had much luck lately. 

With the fish, I served one of my stand-by dishes-- cacio e pepe. In other words, noodles+cheese+black pepper= delicious. You can google this and find a thousand ways to make it, but my standard method is boil noodles in salty water to just a minute or so shy of my desired tenderness. Then, save a cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Meanwhile, heat 2 or so TBSP of olive oil in the pasta pan til it's realllllly hot. You can also throw some buttah in here (which I do when I have some). The, put the pasta back in and stir it around, and then pour the pasta water over it as needed. Throw in whatever kind of cheese you want (plain old parm is my favorite, but romano is decent too) crack a ton of black pepper over the top (and when you think you are done, just give it like two more shakes) and then lightly toss everything together. In theory, the cheese should stick to all of the noodles and make every bite taste salty and gooey, but sometimes you will end up with a giant ball of goopy cheese that is somehow not stuck to any pasta. It still tastes good if that happens, fyi.

Parsley, Pistachio, and Parmesan Pesto

As much as I love alliteration, this "perfect" masterpiece was a total accident, I swear! Yesterday I whipped up this pesto mostly out of boredom, but partly out of a craving. I spread some on a piece of toast for a snack of crostini yesterday afternoon, and tonight I'm going to use it with my dinner!

My basil plant is looking a little thin right now so I decided to leave it alone and instead use up the parsley I have in my fridge. In true Katy style, I didn't keep track of amounts, but I will do my best to remember.

Terrible photo. You know what pesto looks like, though, so oh well.

Parsley Pistachio and Parmesan Pesto

• Half a bunch of parsley; ripped leaves off (a few stems made it in, but that's fine)
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• Half of this little package of pistachios that I had. I'd say two palm-fulls? 
• a couple TBSP of shredded parmesan
• 2 TBSP warm water
• olive oil
• lemon zest (half a lemon's worth
• salt and pepper

Put all ingredients (except for oil and water) into food processor. Pulse until smooth and then add water and oil until it resembles pesto. Obviously change amounts, or ingredients to your taste.  This pesto is sharper than a basil/pine nut pesto. The parsley gives it an almost spicy bitter flavor that I am loving. The pistachios also give it a grittier texture than pine nuts would in a typical pesto. I am a fan, and I can't wait to try other pestos soon (arugula, cilantro, pecan.... the options are endless!)

Dinner a la Rachael Ray

Last night I used one of my favorite cook books for a bit of inspiration. This cook book is Rachael Ray's All-Occasion Cookbook. Ms. Ray gets a bad rap sometimes but I think her recipes are great. They aren't the most gourmet, but they are speedy, healthy, and tasty.

For our Saturday night dinner, I used three recipes:
1. "Too easy" chicken with leeks-- basically, you brown two chicken breasts in a skillet; remove them to soften some leeks; add the chicken back and pour some white wine over the whole thing and cook til done.
2. Pesto mashed potatoes-- I made my own pesto earlier in the week, but the jarred stuff works really well too. Tim actually was in charge of the potatoes. He chopped up about 2 pounds of red potatoes, boiled til soft, and then mashed with chicken stock and about 3/4 cup of fresh pesto.
3. Mixed green salad-- one heart of romaine, one head of radicchio, and one fennel bulb. Added a little balsamic and olive oil, and threw on some Parmesan shavings for good measure.

The meal was decent, but nothing to rave about. The potatoes were the best part, and I ate the leftovers for dinner tonight! The chicken wasn't done when the recipe told me it would be so we ate the meal in shifts. Scheduling a meal correctly to have everything completed at the same time is one of the hardest things about cooking. I feel like I've had 20 years of experience so having a meal-in-shifts makes me incredibly cranky. The salad was decent but would have served 20 people. I probably would have preferred a simple lemon vinaigrette to the balsamic as well.

The potatoes will definitely show up again.