Does it sound yeuch to you? Perhaps but it works.
With many a raised bed in Ireland heaving under the weight of unused lettuce it is time to get experimental and use up the glut. According to STOPFoodWaste almost 50% of salad leaves that are bought are thrown away and I wonder how much of the GIY lettuce ends up being wasted too especially with the novice gardeners out there? I’m on a learning curve with the growing side of things and having sown all my lettuce seeds at once (rookie mistake) there’s a bounty of leaves ready for picking and there is only so much salad that one can eat.
Use this pesto as you would any other to spruce up a sandwich etc and it’s perfect on Fusilli Summer Chicken or Pesto Quesadilla
Lettuce Pesto
You will need:
50g pine nuts
50g parmesan
2 garlic cloves
half head butter leaf lettuce washed (or any lettuce leaves)
small handful flat-leaf parsley
200ml rapeseed or olive oil
Method:
Dry fry (no oil) the pine nuts in a non-stick pan over medium heat until lightly toasted (take care, burn easily)
Grate the parmesan
Crush the garlic
Roughly chop the lettuce leaves & parsley
Place everything in a food processor, pour in the oil and blend to desired consistency adding more oil if you prefer it runnier
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
I would of never thought top use lettuce in a pesto. As luck would have it I picked 4 heads, from the garden, this evening. So I will try this out tomorrow