Cooking with Pesto: Part II

Here are the other three dinners I created last week using the fresh pesto I made.

Night 2: (My personal favorite!) Roasted rack of lamb with pesto crust



Put rack of lamb in roasting pan, fat side up and rub with olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Cook at 450 for 10 minutes. Take the lamb out of the oven and rub the top of the lamb with pesto. Place back in the oven and roast at 450 for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let it rest for 15 minute under aluminum foil.

I served the lamb with parmesan risotto and sugar snap peas.

Night 3: Pesto Pizza


For this meal, I used the same chickpea pizza crust recipe I used last week. Once I made the crust, I just added a thin layer of pesto and a layer of parmesan cheese and put on high heat in the oven for a couple of minutes.

Since the chickpea recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas, I also made one tomato sauce, Hormel pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

Night 4: Pork chops, Yukon gold roasted potatoes, and sautéed spinach (This was the last night of the pesto so we just dipped both pork chops and potatoes in the pesto…delicious!)

Yukon Gold Roasted Potatoes:
Preheat oven to 400. Cut 1 ½ pounds of Yukon gold potatoes (not peeled) lengthwise and into wedges. Place potatoes on baking sheet and mix with ¼ cup olive oil, 2 T. melted butter, 4 minced garlic cloves, 2 T. fresh chopped rosemary, S & P.

Spread out potatoes flat on sheet and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. Season with S & P.

Pork Chops:
I cooked the bone-in pork chops, very simply in a skillet, rubbing them with olive oil and Bosari Seasoned Salt. (We love this seasoning salt and use it often when cooking.)

Put olive oil in skillet and heat on high heat. Preheat oven to 400. Add pork chops to skillet and cook on stove top, about 4 minutes on each side. (You want to get a nice crust.) Then place skillet and pork chops in the heated oven for about 10 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Note: Cooking with bone-in pork chops takes a lot longer than boneless chops. David and I have found that bone-in provides much more tender meat so we usually prefer going with bone-in. You can easily make boneless pork chops in the skillet, you’ll just cook for a shorter time. The meat needs to be about 145 degrees.