Pasta with Arugula Pesto

Hello World! Im tickled pink to say that as of last week, Orbiting Vegan has had readers from India, Macedonia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Poland! Initially I conceived of this blog as a means of being accountable to myself for the quality and nutrition, and watching it grow and expand organically has been a great pleasure! I even had a reader contact me on Facebook and make a special request, which I hope to honor in the very near future! Once again, let me thank each of you that are checking in and reading, and knock on wood, finding some useful information here once in a while! I'd love to hear more from the Orbiting Vegan community interns of comments, suggestions, and any feedback, positive or negative on recipes or ideas you've tried out or would like to share!

A thousand small changes have been going on in the last few days. I picked up a compost bin at Ocean State Job Lot. Its a great big behemoth of a thing, that will hold up to 115 gallons! What I'll ever do with that much compost I don't know, but what I do know is this: since I've been eating vegan and raw foods, I'm also generating a lot of organic waste (peels, stems, cores, seeds, juice pulp etc.) and I would much rather see that material just return to nature than seal it up in plastic bags and haul it to the dump. I found a reasonably inconspicuous location for it near the shed in the back yard, and even got a little indoor compost receptacle for easy transport back and forth.



Here's a shot of its meager insides:



I did as many websites suggested and put a layer of dry material, twigs and leaves mainly, at the bottom, and once I get some volume going in there, which shouldn't be too far from now, I'll add some "compost accelerator" also picked up at job lot. Although my "vegan-martha" dream garden exists years into the future, composting just seems like a good idea from a conservation standpoint. Not to mention saving on trash disposal, plastic bags and the like, in the long run. There are many, many websites that will guide you on what and what not to compost, and since I am not qualified to advise you, I will leave it up to you to find some information that resonates with you. If I come across something I feel I can really get behind, I will share it on this blog, however, right now I've seen about a hundred lists of compostable/non-compostable items and there seem to be several conflicts between them, not the least of which are items like bread, paper, and compostable plastic.

Moving on, I made a lovely quinoa pasta with arugula pesto for lunch! Te recipe came from Chesman's "Serving Up the Harvest," which is a wonderful cookbook organized by season, then sub-categorized by different seasonal vegetables. This is not a vegan cookbook by any standard, and in fact many of the recipes incorporate some kind of dairy product, and others still, though less in number, incorporate flesh. For many of you, and myself in theory, this is no issue at all, and this book will present you with many healthy seasonal options to prepare throughout the year, as well as a chance to "get to know" certain seasonal ingredients a little better by preparing several different recipes using the same focal veggies.

For myself in reality, or what passes for it these days, I have no current desire to eat meat, so there are several pages in this book I skip fit over. I don't mind the occasional coffee with cream, or a taste of real cheese here and there, but for the most part I am dairy free as well. And no, real cheese does not come in individually wrapped slices or a spray can, nor can you buy it in a box unrefrigerated.

For the pesto:
8 cups fresh arugula
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan (you may simply skip this, or include it if you wish. I chose to add a few cashews and a pinch of salt to the mix, to incorporate the "cashew Parmesan" flavor into the pesto.)
8 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, minced (you can skip mincing if you're going to Vitamix it, same for the garlic.)
Salt and pepper to taste

Everything else:
16 oz vermicelli (unavailable, used linguine)
1 small can of chopped black olives

First blanch the arugula. Essentially, 20-30 seconds in boiling water, then remove arugula from the boiling water and immediately submerge in ice water until it cools down. The ice water stops the cooking process.

Chesman says, first chop the nuts and garlic in your food processor. Add the arugula, and continue processing until fine. Add the oil and cheese, or not, and continue processing until you have a thick paste, at which point you may add your minced tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and Voila! Pesto.

I say throw everything in the Vitamix at once and you will have pesto in about 15 seconds, if that.

I used Quinoa pasta (linguine to be precise) in order to at least get a little protein out of the deal, rather than a traditional semolina flour, processed, bleached, blah, blah, blah...you get the idea. There are several alternative pastas available, made from quinoa, spelt, vegetable flours, and rice, all of which are likely better alternatives to the garden variety, to be slightly ironic. If you're quick off the mark, you kept your water boiling from the arugula and are ready to go! I like my pasta a bit firmer, so I gave it about 8 minutes or boiling before straining.

Combine the pesto and pasta in a large bowl and mix well, add a small can of sliced black olives to the mix, and serve with extra cashew Parmesan on the side! Delicious, and the pesto has a bold, nutty flavor that almost makes you think there's avocado in it. This, paired with the olives, is simply exquisite.

My suggestion however is either double the pasta, or halve the sauce, because, as you will see, the pasta was more than well coated, in fact, you it say the pesto was well coated with the pasta. I gave it a simple parsley garnish, which is useful on two fronts; aside from being aesthetically pleasing, it will freshen your breath nicely. You will need it.




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Location:Madison, CT