Using Pesto... ideas please

[anonymousbird]

MIL has made what looks/smells like some rather amazing Pesto. It is a fair sized jar and needs to be used within a couple of weeks. So, other than as a pasta accompaniment and stirring into my soon-to-be-made courgette soup, what else can I use it for?

Any meats go with pesto????

Thanks.

Very nice spread on toasted ciabatta slices or on circles of dough that are then baked for a herby garlic bread. Split chicken breasts semi-open, spread with a little pesto and cream cheese before closing back up and baking in foil. A nice party nibble are baked smallish new potatoes stuffed with pesto and cream cheese.... using an apple corer, take a cylindrical piece out of the centre of each potato, chop off the ends and reserve. Plug one end of the hole, stuff in some pesto/cheese mixture, seal up the other end and then bake until tender.

Mix into breadcrumbs and put onto fish, salmon is my fav, and bake in the oven. Very yummy

mix it up with cream cheese and stuff it into a chicken breast. Wrap in bacon and bake in oven. Easy.

Add to e.g. leek risotto, along with a beaten egg (while still hot, obvs) and some cheese. Yum.

Pesto rice cake is gorgeous. Google for the recipe, but I think it's on recipe network.

Make a basic tomatoey sauce, put in a shallow ovenproof dish, sink some fillets of cod or haddock into it and spread each one with a large spoonful of pesto. Sprinkle with black olives and bake until the fish is tender.

We had some last week with Salmon. Spread over the top of a salmon fillet, wrap in foil and bake in the oven.

You might find the pesto will freeze, if you can't use it all now.

Pinner I think mine is pesto rice cake, but I could never get it to go in slices, so I just gave up and now serve it as just risotto . Oh and I got that from Aitch's BLW blog but I can't seem to find it on there now... ah well.

These

Minnebar - I found it better to make in advance and then reheat, whereby it would slice perfectly and you would still get the gooey layer of mozzarella. I know not everyone likes to reheat rice, but it works for me.

Poledra, I make those chicken bites too. They are great and my 2 DD's love them.

Make a quiche and spread it on the pastry base befor pouring in the egg mixture. Its the DS's favourite!

If you mix equal amounts of Mayo and pesto it makes a great sauce to go with salmon. Also really good with the Mayo again for pasta salad with peppers

Good on homemade pizzas too

pean and pesto soup its so easy to make and tastes amazing!

pea, not pean

as a dressing for griddled aubergines. It does really go best with pasta though. To jazz it up you can do as the genoese do and add french beans and little cubes of potato to the pasta while it's boiling and then have these in with the pasta- lovely!

Delia's pesto rice salad is delicious. I like it hot as well as cold. It's really good with roast tomatoes.

Home made pesto can be frozen.

Fry up mushrooms and chicken in the pesto, with a bit of added oil, stick in some cooked gnocchi and add more pesto. It's yummy!

I like to put a big spoonful in a risotto.

I use it on pizza bases instead of tomato sauce.

There's a soup called soup au pistou or something like that, which involves a final flavouring of pesto.

Mix it with creme fraiche and use a dip for breadsticks.

on fish - pesto, breadcrumbs parmesan and lemon mixed up then patted thickly on to fish fillets then oven baked - Yum.

with chicken - fry gralic and chicken until browned stir in 2 generous tablespoons of pesto as much as you like really, then add a mix of chopped cherry tomatoes and sundried or roasted tomatoes, cook through, add about 300ml of creme fraiche and ensuring chicken in cooked through heat up so creme frache is hot and serve with wild and basmati rice - Yum Yum

Can you tell my son LOVES pesto.

just stirred into pasta is lovely with parmesan is lovely too

stir it into may for an alternative condiment with cold meats...

I could go on......