pesto Archives - The Midnight Baker

Pesto Cheese Pinwheels

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 00:00:25 +0000

Want a quick snack for the big game? Pesto cheese pinwheels are just what you need!

Pesto Pinwheels: Easy Snack

Ever get a snack attack and want something savory and quick? How about no real work?

Well here you have it. These pesto pinwheels use all no-work no-hassle ingredients. That’s because they’re all prepared!

The beauty of these is you can change up the cheeses and even substitute things like pizza sauce if you have no prepared pesto on hand. Since pizza dough is a common ingredient for many other things, it’s not unusual to have a tube of the refrigerated kind right in your fridge.

How About That Super Bowl?

If you’re having a Super Bowl party with guests or if it’s just the family watching, snacks are always in order. Have you ever run out of tidbits to eat? I know I have so I rely on recipes such as this where I can get them up and out in less than 30 minutes.

I’ve done a lot of entertaining in my day and there’s nothing worse than running out of food. I’ve had guests who’ve been overzealous in their eating so I make sure I’m always prepared with recipes like these pesto pinwheels or even something totally prepared that I keep in my freezer. It’s terribly embarrassing to run out of stuff. It happened to me once when I was not prepared so I make sure I have things on hand,

So even if you’re not hosting a party but you get midnight snack attacks where you want something savory, this really fills the bill. And the leftovers? They reheat very well in the microwave or air fryer.

Pizza Dough

If you don’t happen to have the ready-made stuff on hand, pizza dough is pretty easy to make from scratch.

However, if you have a tube of crescent roll dough, that can stand in nicely. They will, of course, have a different texture but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They’ll be a lot richer tasting.

The Recipe

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Pesto Pinwheels

For those last-minute snack attacks.

Prep Time5

Cook Time20

Course: Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: easy super bowl snacks, pizza dough appetizers, snacks with pesto

Servings: 8

Calories: 239kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 tube refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 cup pesto
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Lightly spray a 8 or 8-inch square pan with non-stick spray.
Roll out pizza dough to a 16 x 8-inch rectangle.
Spread pesto on top of pizza dough, leaving 1-inch/2.5 cm on one long end plain.
Sprinkle with the cheeses and roll up from the long end opposite the plain end. Cut into 16 rolls (a serrated knife works best) and place 4 across and 4 down in the prepared pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

For EU/UK--don't use larger than a 23 cm square pan. I'm not sure of your standard sizing but I'm basing it on 9-inches square.

Nutrition

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Cheesy Pesto Bacon Pasta Bake

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 23:00:01 +0000

This pesto bacon pasta bake is a cheese lover’s delight. Make one for now and one to freeze for later.

Calling All Cheese Lovers

Here’s your casserole cheese and pesto lovers.

This pasta bake is chock full of Italian blend cheeses. However, there’s no work on your part to shred them since this is a blend sold in your store’s dairy case. So all you have to do is drop a couple of packages in your cart and you’re set to go.

The Few Extra Steps Are Worth It

This casserole requires that you make a basic white sauce as the base for the creamy sauce.

I generally don’t like recipes that have added steps because I’m all about quick and easy, but I’m telling you that this one is well worth it. This pasta bake has a fantastic taste and texture, and anything that’s this good is surely worth the extra work.

This casserole originally began as a freezer meal, so what I advise doing is making double the recipe so you can eat one today and pop the extra one in the freezer for that “rainy day” when you simply don’t feel like cooking.

Did I Mention Bacon?

As if this casserole couldn’t get any better, it also calls for everyone’s favorite: BACON!

The bacon flavor really comes through here too. It blends so well with the great-tasting sauce, pasta and the spinach!

The original recipe from Happy Money Saver called for the addition of cubed cooked chicken, but I didn’t feel that was necessary so I left it out. I made a couple of other adjustments to the original, but nothing major.

The casserole isn’t meat free because of the bacon. However, it can be made vegetarian by omitting the bacon and perhaps substituting a soy-based baconlike product instead. Sadly, there is no way to make this vegan–meaning where it would taste good.

The Recipe

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Cheesy Pesto Bacon Pasta Bake

This pesto bacon pasta bake is a cheese lover’s delight. Make one for now and one to freeze for later.

Prep Time30

Cook Time45

Total Time1 15

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: casseroles for a crowd, easy pasta dinner, italian casseroles, Pesto

Servings: 6

Calories: 810kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
16 oz penne pasta - cooked al dente and drained
4 cups shredded Italian cheese blend 16 ounces
3 cups fresh baby spinach
2 cups ready-made pasta sauce -OR- 2 cups of your own homemade
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tbsp basil pesto
3/4 cup crispy bacon- finely chopped
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Make a simple white sauce by melting butter in a pan over medium heat. Sprinkle in flour over melted butter and whisk constantly for 3-4 minutes over medium heat. Then add in chicken broth and whisk quickly together. Cook over heat until it’s thick and bubbles up. Set white sauce aside.
Cook penne pasta according to package directions. Drain noodles and then dump them into a large mixing bowl.
Add in white sauce, cheese, spinach, pasta sauce, milk, pesto and 1/2 cup of the bacon. Mix well.
Pour pasta into a 9x13 baking dish.
In a separate bowl mix together parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, remaining bacon and olive oil.
Bake at 350 ℉ for 45 minutes.

Video

Nutrition

Adapted from Happy Money Saver

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Linguine with Toasted Pecan Arugula Pesto

Judith Hannemann — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 23:00:00 +0000

Linguine with Toasted Pecan Arugula Pasta

A really different pesto and pasta dish! Great nutty flavor and a bold arugula-based pesto!

Now this meal may sound fancy–but trust me, it’s not!

The pesto departs from using the usual basil and uses arugula, or rocket to my UK readers. Arugula has such an earthy flavor, it adds so much to this meal. Follow the link in the ingredients for the pesto recipe.

Excellent light meal

Of course that’s just my opinion because it’s my green of choice in a salad because it has real flavor–unlike most lettuces!

Pecans add flavor

It’s important with this to reserve some of the pasta water. The pesto tends to be a bit firm and slightly dry–which makes it an excellent keeper, so you’ll have to add some water back in when you mix the pesto with the pasta.

Tons of flavor in every bite

I only had to mix about 1/4 cup in to get it to a nice smooth consistency for my tastes, but I do recommend reserving at least 1/2 cup. It’s easily discarded if you don’t use it.

Nice enough for company, but very easy

This is a near perfect meal for when you want something filling, but don’t want meat. The toasted pecans–in the pesto and added on top of the pasta–give this a marvelous depth of flavor.

The whole meal is very easy to prepare and it’s good enough and just that little bit fancy to serve to guests!

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Linguine with Toasted Pecan Arugula Pesto

A really different pesto and pasta dish! Great nutty flavor and a bold arugula-based pesto!

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Everyday Meals, pasta, vegetarian dishes

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: arugula, Linguine, pasta, Pesto

Servings: 4

Calories: 253kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

8 oz linguine uncooked
1 recipe Arugula Pesto
1/4 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup + pasta water

Instructions

Cook linguine as per package directions. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta water before draining.
Toss the hot pasta with the entire amount of the arugula pesto. Add only enough of the reserved pasta water so that the mixture is not dry–the amount you add will vary as to what consistency pleases your taste.
Top with the chopped pecans.

Notes

recipe Arugula Pesto

Nutrition

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Arugula Pesto

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 23:00:00 +0000

Arugula Pesto

A delicious but different pesto–made with toasted pecans and arugula!

I’m not really a lover of original pesto–I like basil, but too much tastes medicine-y to me.

I hit on something I thought I’d like in an old Food Network magazine I had out on my porch–a pesto made with arugula.

Rich flavor

When I made it up, I found it dry and not too much taste besides the arugula, but then I found a dish on Epicurious that had more bold flavors so I tried that. Again, I found it a little dry and not cheesy enough, but the base taste was excellent, so I adapted it slightly.

Fight the urge to skip the step of making the paste with the garlic and salt. I think this is what gives it the great flavor it has. I use a mortar and pestle for this, but you don’t need one. A heavy-bladed knife (like a large chef knife or a cleaver) will do. Just mince up the garlic, sprinkle the salt on top and mash, mash, mash with the side of the knife.

Perfect on pasta

Excellent in pasta and spread on chicken or any meat to be grilled.

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Arugula Pesto

Delicious pesto made with arugula

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Pesto

Servings: 2 1/2 cup servings

Calories: 711kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

5 oz box of baby arugula
1 large garlic clove
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
9 tbs olive oil
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 cup toasted pecans

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Mash garlic with the 1/2 tsp of salt to form a paste–you can do this with a mortar & pestle or by using the side of a wide heavy knife.
Toast pecans by placing them in a 350 degree F oven for about 4 minutes.
Place the arugula, cheese, olive oil, pepper, mashed garlic and toasted pecans in a food processor.
Process for about 1 minute.

Video

See post for video (if there is one)

Nutrition

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Club Sandwich

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Club Sandwich

One of America’s all-time favorite diner sandwiches. Easy to make, too. This one has a special sauce. And this uses those Easter ham leftovers too!

Who hasn’t ever ordered one of these in a diner? They are filling and very tasty.

My version has ham, because that’s what I had on hand, but any sandwich filling will do–even a burger or cheeseburger!

This sandwich is just BLT *and*. First you start by toasting 3 sliced of sandwich bread–the totally square kind–yes, you can use regular white or wheat, but it looks ever so much better made with the square bread!

You do your BLT, add another slice of toast, then add your favorite sandwich filling. Top with the last piece of toast then slice criss-cross. The slicing is made easier (and also holding this beauty together) with the use of club picks. These are just really long toothpicks and are available in most party-supply stores. They have *many* uses besides just sandwiches, so yes, buy that big box of 1000. They won’t go to waste.

Here’s what you need for one sandwich~~

Club Sandwich Ingredients

Lettuce
Sliced tomato
2 slices cooked bacon
3 slices toasted white/wheat bread
2 oz sandwich meat or tuna/egg/shrimp salad or a burger
Mayo (or the sandwich spread below)

Sandwich Spread:

1 tbs mayonnaise
1/4 tsp pesto*

Just mix the mayo and the pesto, and spread on one slice of bread and assemble sandwich as above.

Here’s a link to the BEST pesto I’ve ever had–link is in the paragraph below. Of course you can buy it, but why bother when homemade is easy and tastes so good.

The recipe is one from Robin Ellis. Who was not madly in love with Robin (Poldark) Ellis in the 1970s when the Poldark series ran? The link is a video of Robin making his pesto and it’s a joy to watch…he’s also written a cookbook for diabetics. Do check it out and visit Robin’s blog.

Club Sandwich

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