...a can of roasted red peppers. I won it in my Italian gift basket from the Giving Dinner. It is one of those things that hubby looked at and said, "we'll never use that." I had to agree, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. So when I was digging up our herbs that died from the cold weather and silently crying over the wasted basil, I had an epiphany - roasted red pepper pesto. Thus, the pantry Meatless Monday was born.I grabbed the jar and some basic ingredients for pesto sans basil. I'm sure basil would have been a great addition, but as just mentioned, it was now thrown aside in the brisk cold air.
I had every intention on adding more olive oil, but after seeing all the great oil that was already seeping with flavor, I didn't need any. I toasted up some pine nuts that I had leftover from a recipe last week and grabbed handfuls of Parmesan to add. A few cloves of garlic and we were ready to blend.
Adding some salt and pepper to taste, I had this beautiful, red/orange pesto. It had great char flavor due to the roasted peppers, a taste of earthiness from the pine nuts, and a nice salty contrast from the cheese. This would be absolutely fantastic on some fresh pizza dough or even some toasted crostini's. I was pleasantly surprised and I think hubby was too as he feasted on lots of pasta.
With Turkey Day right around the corner, I was happy to not indulge in any meat as I know that bird and I will become very good friends come Thursday!