Seafood Pesto Pasta

One of favorite dishes of for this summer is my seafood pesto pasta. All the herbs at the farmers market are so fresh now and I love my basel. The key to this dish is making your own pesto.

2 cups basil
1-2 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Your best olive oil
Parmesan cheese (optional)

I make this pesto in my food processor but throwing the basil, garlic, salt and peppper in and add enough oil until desired consistency. I prefer more of a soft paste and do not like it too oily. Make sure to add more salt or pepper if needed.

When making this pasta dish, I prefer to make the pesto on the same day but it can be easily frozen as it keeps well. (Tip: Freeze them in ice cube trays so that you can easily defrost it!)

Use any type of pasta you like but I used speghetti here. I sauted onions, garlic and then added some shrimp and scallops.I then added the pesto, tomatos and white white to deglaze the pan. Make sure its only a splash of wine because the tomatos will release liquid as well and you do not want you water down your sauce. Once the seafood has cooked, add your pasta to the pan. Taste you dish at this point and add more pesto or salt or pepper. This is a quick and easy (and healthy!) dish that you can make for yourself or friends and family! This dish is good hot or cold! Great for picnics too!

Cleanse that palate!

With the first sunny weekend in San Francisco, I decided to try to make some granita! I had a ton of lemons from my friends lemon tree so I decided to make a lemon based granita. I went to the farmers market to see what else I could add and I saw some beautiful, fresh mint. It was definitely going in! I also bought some ginger to give it a little kick (I add ginger to almost everything that I cook!) It would have been great with just the lemon, mint and ginger, but I wanted a little pop of color so I thought of pomegranate juice...BUT, I was not able to find any at the little store next to my house, so I just bought some cranberry juice. The granita turned out amazing! The soft pink color and the ginger and mint give the granita a sophisticated touch. I can't wait to make this again in the summer!

2 cups sweetened cranberry juice
4 large lemons (zested and juiced)
1 tbsp of grated ginger
1 cup of mint leaves
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water

Combine all ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar. Let it steep for 20-30 minutes. The longer the better. Place in a large flat baking dish and freeze for 2-3 hours. Once frozen, use a fork to scrape the surface to create a icee/slushie consistancy and refreeze for another 4 hours. Enjoy!

Im back!!

It's been ages since I've been here and I think I might have some time to start blogging again! I hope! I plan to go to LA's first annual food festival this weekend so hopefully I'll take a lot of pictures and post them here. It supposed to be filled with food trucks from all over LA...hopefully the kogi taco truck will be there. I still have not had a chance to try it!

Since I've been away, I've gone through a lot of changes. Mentally, emotionally, physically....and I have also tried some new recipes and ingredients! The most recent are swiss chard, kale and beets. The fall season produces great veggies and I made a great swiss chard dish with caramelized onions, bacon and sweet fennel sausage. Soo good! :)