Cilantro Pesto

Hello boys and girls and welcome to the HipsterCurious kitchen. Today we learn how to make pesto without basil or arugula (the option to replace basil if you don't have any).

First, let me tell you about my style of cooking, something I like to call the "ish" cooking. It's called that because every measurement ends with "ish". How much salt should I put in? I dunno, tablespoon-ish? How much flour? Umm, cup-ish? How much cheese? Always double-ish what the recipe says. See the pattern there?

Anyhow, I promised Chris I would make gnocchi with portobello mushrooms and home made pesto. (sounds so much fancier and harder to make than it actually is). So, off I go to the grocery store. Not a sight of basil. Ok, I can use arugula instead. Oh! What? No arugula either? Ok... What now?

Answer: well those plants kinda look basil-ish. I'll just buy some of those. Let's get two different kinds and claim it's intentional. Awesome! I'm a culinary genius!

So, this is what you need:

Basil is for wimps, use cilantro and spinach instead
Olive Oil (we were running low so I bought some. Never tried Argentinian olive oil before, but it says it's for salads and pesto. Perfect)
Garlic
Parmesan cheese

Instead of being all fancy and spending all day mashing it up in a mortar, use a mixer instead. Start by putting in a clove of garlic and some olive oil. Mix. Add some cilantro. Mix again. Dump in some spinach. Mix. Add olive oil and salt. Mix some more. Taste a little and then add more salt/olive oil/garlic/greens depending what you think might be missing and mix. Finally add the parmesan cheese. Mix a tad.

Done.

And if you're curious as to the rest of what I made, here's how:

chop up some mushrooms and put them in a pan with some olive oil. Fry on medium heat until they release some water and keep frying while the water evaporates. While that's happening put some water to boil, once it does, dump in gnocchi. Once the gnocchi floats to the surface of the water, drain the water. In the same pot you boiled the gnocchi in, combine gnocchi and pesto. Mix. Then add fried mushrooms. Put on a plate and if you have some extra herbs left over from pesto, put a couple of leaves on top to make it look fancy-ish.

Done.