We're two sisters who are craft book publishers and found ourselves in the midst of an avocado grove. We bought this house where we planned to conduct our publishing business and in the deal got 4 acres of avocado trees thrown in. Now we're not only publishers but ranchers as well! This blog is all about avocados and anything else that strikes my fancy.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Avocado Pesto - But Beware of the Bitters



My daughter was raving about an avocado pesto recipe. It sounds absolutely delicious. I haven't tried it yet and I'll have to change one of the ingredients (which I'll tell you about later), but it seems easy enough and would be a delicious summertime entree. Here's the california avocado commission recipe:

Avocado Pesto©

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups diced California avocados
  • 2 Tbsp. pine nuts (finely chopped)
  • ⅓ cup pure virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
  • 4 cups basil leaves
  • ¼ cup parmesan cheese
  • 2 cups chopped sundried tomatos softend in hot water
  • 1 lb. bowtie pasta (or pasta of choice)

Instructions

  1. Boil water and prepare pasta as directed
  2. Chop sundried tomatoes into 1/2 inch pieces and place in hot water.
  3. Dice pine nuts and garlic separately, set aside.
  4. Take stems off basil leaves and place in blender or food processor.
  5. Place pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese in blender/food processor.
  6. Blend until a thick paste is achieved.
  7. Add avocados. Blend until smooth.
  8. Drain sundried tomatoes.
  9. Mix avocado/pesto mix into cooked pasta and mix in sundried tomatoes. Serve hot or cold. 
O.K. What's the ingredient I would leave out? It's the pine nuts. I would substitute walnuts. Why? Well, first of all, I really don't like pine nuts. And second has to do with a weird food incident my sister, Barbara, had recently where everything she ate tasted bitter, literally everything. It went on for 2 or 3 weeks. So in desperation she consulted google and typed in "bitter taste in mouth" thinking there might be some help for her condition. Well, lo and behold, there were hundreds of posts on google for "bitter taste in mouth" and this one claims that the culprit is pine nuts:

pinchmysalt.com/2009/05/02/pine-nuts-left-a-bitter-taste-in-my-mouth/

So, not only do I not like pine nuts, but I have a good reason not to eat them. I'll use walnuts instead. I'll let you decide what to do. But however you make this recipe, hope you enjoy it.
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1 comment:

  1. Helen Killeen Bauch McHargueJune 16, 2010 at 5:54 AM

    Did Barbara eat pine nuts when the bitter perception started? I've never experienced this phenomenon but am interested in seeing if I have the same or similar experience. It could be a great diet regimen! "The Bitter Belly Buster Blast". We could make a potion out of the pine nuts - a couple of spoonfuls every few days to maintain the wierd taste. Remember when we used to choke down Cod Liver Oil?

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