Toasted Sesame Pasta

With the scent of freshly picked basil, my mind begins to wander through every imagineable use. After countless minutes spent staring into space, drooling on my shirt, I snap out of the food delerium with an image of what I'd like to create. This time, I settled on an Asian-inspired pasta dish. Here's how it went:

Ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat rotini
1 lb potatoes, sliced to 1/4 inch cubes
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red chile pepper, diced
6 roma tomatoes, chopped
2 small yellow onions, chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil, diced
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil, divided
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp brown rice vinegar

Directions:
1) In a large pot, cook 3 cups rotini
2) While rotini cooks; in a large skillet on medium-high heat, warm vinegars and soy sauce
3) Add potatoes and 1 tbsp sesame oil, cook while stirring until lightly browned
4) Rotini should be finished; drain and set in large mixing bowl
4) Reduce heat under skillet to medium, add peppers and onions, cook 10 minutes or until onions soften
5) Add tomatoes and herbs, cook for 2-3 minutes
6) Combine veggies with pasta, add remaining toasted sesame oil if desired
7) Serve and enjoy!

Vegan Pesto

If you're anything like me, you can't get enough Italian food. So when I harvested basil from my garden yesterday, the first thought to pop in my head was "Pesto!" With a strainer full of fresh basil, I headed into the house to wash off my booty of greens and get to cookin'.

Now, since I love making bread so much I decided that this occasion - my first attempt at pesto - needed it's own bread to go with it. So I made a small twist on the basil bread recipe below; I used fresh chives from my garden, then added dried rosemary and thyme. No basil this time around, since I needed the bulk of it for pesto. When prepping the dough for baking, I spread it out in a slab along a slightly oiled baking sheet; roughly 1" tall, 3" wide, and the length of the sheet. This made for a long, easily sliceable loaf, perfect for dabbing pesto and topping with small slices of tomato.

While the dough was rising, I headed to Whole Foods to grab pine nuts and the all-important nutritional yeast. This stuff is magic for replacing cheese, so it's a must have for this pesto recipe. Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:
1 cup pine nuts
1 1/2 cups fresh basil
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
6 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt

Not too many ingredients, most of which you probably have on hand already. My one recommendation: use a food processor. I do not have one, and using a blender to make this took quite some effort and patience.

Directions:
1) Combine all ingredients in food processor.
2) Blend
3) If you're serving guests, perhaps save a few pine nutes to crumble on top as a garnish

Put this delicious stuff on bread, sandwiches, crackers, or anything you want to be instantly delectable.

Garlic & basil bread

I wish I had known how entertaining it is to make bread from scratch years ago; I'd have been doing it all this time! Like a potter at his wheel, I love to mix, shape, and form the dough into a delicious piece of edible artistry. Now, I'm not saying my bread is pretty... but it is pretty damn tasty! So here's a simple recipe for some extremely aromatic garlic & basil bread that is sure to compliment anything from garlic hummus to sweet red pepper relish.

Ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tbsp raw sugar
2 cups warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh garlic
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
2 tsp crushed dried rosemary


Directions:
1) In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in the warm water
2) Stir in yeast, let sit for 10 minutes until foamy
3) In a separate bowl, combine flours (set 1/2 cup aside for rolling)
4) After 10 minutes, add 1 1/2 tbsp oil to water/sugar/yeast
5) Slowly add flour combination, stirring as you add roughly 1 cup at a time
6) Once mixture has turned into dough, spread the 1/2 cup flour on a flat, hard surface
7) Lay the dough out on this surface, sprinkle on the basil, garlic and chives as you begin to knead the dough. Knead until bread is smooth
8) Use remaining 1/2 tbsp oil to coat a large bowl
9) Put dough in oiled bowl, sprinkle on rosemary and turn to coat dough in oil/rosemary
10) Cover bowl, let dough rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size
11) Remove dough from bowl, knead and cut in half
12) Shape halves into loaves, place in oiled 9x5 bread pans and let rise to the top of the pan (30 min)
13) Cut 3 diagonal slits roughly 1/4 inch deep across the top of each loaf
14) Bake loaves for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F

After the bread is done baking, allow to cool a few minutes before slicing. Put on your favorite toppings, and enjoy!