Carrot Top Pesto Sauce

 Can you guess what I made from the picture above? Yes, the answer is in the title but really, what IS carrot top pesto sauce? I used this Cuisinart Immersion Blender.

Remember this lovely bunch of organic carrots used in this scrumptious Vday meal? Well I cut off the green tops and used my better (albeit uninformed) judgment to save the tops because surely there is something I can make with carrot greens. I looked online for recipes involving carrot leaves and found a unanimous search result for carrot top pesto.Some people blanched their leaves before blending, some used pine nuts, and some added Parmesan cheese. I opted for the cheapest route possible. This meant using leftover almonds we had at home with tons of garlic and olive oil and adding sun dried tomatoes into the blended sauce at the end. This was a culmination of many recipes I browsed and no measurements were used. All I can say is use a handful of everything and one bunch of carrot tops. Everything was blended with a Cuisinart emulsion blender.

In a pan, I sauteed some garlic and canned mushrooms (because I did not have fresh ones available) in light EVOO and butter,added a dash of white wine, sun dried tomatoes, and capers. When the wine had reduced I tossed in angel hair pasta and mixed it in the sauce. Then reducing the heat, I added in my pesto sauce and tossed until the pasta was well coated. This turned out to be delicious. Skipping the Parmesan cheese may have made it a bit more bland than store bought pesto but I really can't bring myself to put fart-smelling, ass-tasting cheese in anything I eat. If you know a good mild cheese recommendation for pesto, my ears are open. The batch of sauce pictured above makes 6-8 portions of pasta. One bunch of carrot tops really goes a long way. Some recipes didn't use the stems. I say why not, it all gets chopped up anyway. Also it turns out to be a smart idea to blanch the leaves first. It will help everything blend quickly.

Making a special guest appearance at dinner was one of the many leftover steaks from the freezer, also purchased in bulk at the same time as the Vday steaks. This time I made the steaks per this Foodnetwork recipe. Added browned mushrooms in the red wine sauce. Excellent recipe! Dinner has been delicious lately...