Spinachpalooza

When yearning for pesto without my herb garden in full bloom with basil, and with a lot of spinach on hand that I needed to use up, I thought why not substitute spinach for basil? Tonight's dinner just looked so beautiful, if I do say so myself, to skip blogging about! Here's how I used a whole bag of spinach in one dinner for 2 (well, 2.5... Evan had some!) Salmon with spinach pesto, spinach pesto pasta with peas and tomatoes, sauteed spinach. I used whole leaf spinach, not baby spinach. And I had enough pesto leftover to fill a 3oz baby food container (which should do another batch of pasta).

Pesto (very rough estimates because I eyeballed the whole thing):
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 bag of spinach (10oz bag)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Add all ingredients to food processor and blitz until smooth. Taste test and adjust ingredients accordingly.

Salmon:
I seasoned the salmon with salt & pepper on each side. I sauteed 1 clove of chopped garlic in about 1 tbsp olive oil until it started to brown then I added the salmon. After I flipped it, I added about 1 tbsp white cooking wine (optional). Once it was cooked through (they were very thin so it was only a few minutes) I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over them and then topped with some pesto.

Pesto Pasta:
I cooked about 1/3 box (14.5oz box) of elbow noodles in salted water. Both Barilla and Ronzoni make some vitamin and protein packed pasta these days, so I get one of those. After draining the pasta and before returning it to the pan, I add about 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil and about 1/4 cup frozen peas and 15 or so chopped grape tomatoes (just the kind I had on hand today... I've done it before with roma tomatoes) to the pan and cook over low heat until the peas are cooked through. Then add about half the remaining pesto mix and the pasta to the pan and stir until that pasta is the beautiful green color. Top with parmesan cheese.

Spinach:
I used the rest of the spinach, which may be a big portion but it cooks way down, as a vegetable side. I sauteed 1 chopped garlic clove in about 1-2 tbsp olive oil then added the spinach. When it started to wilt, I added a little white cooking wine. Once it was all cooked, I topped with some fresh squeezed lemon juice which is great for flavoring but it will turn the spinach slightly brown where it is concentrated.


As I mentioned before, I had about 3oz of pesto left which can be frozen and used in the future. I also realize that pesto usually has some sort of toasted nut which I've never used before and I still enjoy the taste!