Carrot Top Pesto

This is one of those processes that can be done with any herbs or greens. Whenever I receive a carrot bunch with the greens still attached, I turn it into pesto! I used some vinegars and oil from local-to-me The Quail & Olive. Feel free to use whatever you have, but they do ship if you aren't local.

Seriously, don't toss these into your compost bin. Turn them into something delicious and edible!

Pesto is a sauce that originated in the Ligurian region of northern Italy. Pesto genovese, from Genoa, traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil, and pine nuts blended with olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano. The name derives from the Italian verb pestare which means to pound or to crush, referring to the original way of preparing it - with a mortar and pestle. The ingredients in a traditional pesto are ground with a circular motion of the pestle in the mortar. Now I use a food processor or a blender. It's much easier! And...I use whatever greens and nuts I happen to have on-hand. So, for this version, I was inspired by the carrot top greens and I had pistachios in the pantry.

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh carrot top greens, rinsed, dried, and destemmed

• 4 to 5 cloves garlic, peeled

• 1/2 cup whole raw pistachios

• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Balsamic Vinegar (on The Quail & Olive website, or whatever vinegar you have on-hand)

• 2 Tablespoons Champagne Mimosa Vinegar (on The Quail & Olive website, or whatever vinegar you have on-hand)

• olive oil as needed (I used the Doctor's Blend (on The Quail & Olive website, or whatever vinegar you have on-hand)

• freshly ground salt and pepper, as needed

Procedure

Place all of the ingredients into the blender or the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times, drizzle in a few glugs of olive oil, and resume pulsing. Pulse. Oil. Pulse. Oil. If you want a smoother, sauce-like pesto, add more olive oil and blend longer; if you want a chunkier pesto, use less oil and blend for less time. So simple. So fresh. So fragrant.

I tossed the pesto with some gluten-free pasta and a splash of the cooking water to loosen up the sauce. Serve immediately garnished with some more of the carrot top greens and a few whole pistachios.