Piccante Dolce: Meatless Monday: Radish Pesto

I'm on a kick of late to try to use every part of the a vegetable. From boiling and pureeing the woody ends of asparagus to using beet green in a smoothie to this pesto, my goal is to try to find some use for each part of the veggies I buy. It's only been a week and I really home I can keep it up. Last week I bought gorgeous organic radishes as the Birchcliff Farmer's Market. It's funny that I say I bought gorgeous radishes, because I'm actually not a huge fan of radishes, luckily I can appreciate how lovely they are. I pickled the bright red bulbs and had a slew of greens leftover.

Could I have tossed the greens? Absolutely!

Instead I turned to my favorite research tool, Google and asked about uses for radish greens. There were the more obvious suggestions of putting them in smoothies or sauteing them like spinach. While both were viable options, they weren't out of the ordinary for me. That is until I cam across some recipes for radish green pesto. I'll be honest this isn't all that wild and crazy but it is something I truly never thought of and I love all kinds of pesto give me any combination of greens, nuts and hard cheese and I'll turn it into pesto. Well since I had pistachios and parmesan on hand pesto it was kind of a no brainer

I may not be a fan of radishes, but this pesto is delicious! I made homemade ravioli and used the pesto in the filling AND spread it on a caprese sandwich. It adds a delicious peppery flavor that's different from arugula. I promise, if you repurpose your radish greens for this rather than the compost bin you'll be happy you did!

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Radish Pesto

by jen June-20-2011

Ingredients

2 cups radish greens - sliced and loosely packed
1/4 cup pistachios - roasted & salted
1/4 cup parmesan cheese - grated
1 large clove garlic
1/4-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil - amount varies based on how tight or loose you want your sauce
sea salt & fresh crack black pepper

Instructions

1. Wash the radish greens well and pat dry. 2. Place the greens, pistachios, and garlic into the food processor. Pulse until it begins to break down. 3. Stream in the olive oil while the food processor is running until it is too a consistency that you like. 4. Add in the parmesan and pulse to combine.

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