Today I'm going to show you the recipe for watercress pesto - a delicious and very nutritious meal that is very fast and easy to prepare.
For those of you who don't know the watercress: it's an amazing plant, which originally comes from Eurasia but currently, it's available almost on all continents. It's called a "superfood" because of all the vitamins and minerals which it contains (more vitamin C than in lemons, as much potassium as in bananas, vitamin K, B3...!)
Fancy, healthier than supplements from the nearest pharmacy and cheap ingredients which immediately will make you feel better.
Watercress pesto (4 plates)
Ingredients:
- 2 big bunches of watercress leaves
- 60g of walnuts
- 40g of parmesan cheese
- 100ml of olive oil extra virgin
- 750g of your favorite pasta
- 2 or 3 tomatoes
- 3 cloves of garlic
- salt & pepper
Step 1️⃣
Roast the walnuts for a while, using the dry pan. Watch out to not burn it.
Step 2️⃣
Crush the walnuts and garlic in the mortar.
If you have a strong blender, that step is optional.
If you don't have a mortar, use the clean cotton fabric and hammer
Step 3️⃣
Put crushed walnuts and garlic into a big bowl.
Wash your watercress. Remove the largest stems and add the leaves to the bowl.
Step 4️⃣
Add parmezan cheese. If you don't have original Parmigiano Reggiano, you can use Grana Padano cheese
Step 5️⃣
Blend all the ingredients in the bowl, same time adding slowly olive oil. If your blender gets too hot, make sure to stop blending for a while each 15-20 seconds to make it cool down
Step 6️⃣
Stop blending when pesto has the consistency like on the picture below. Add salt and pepper. I like when my pesto is salty but I don't add much of pepper as watercress is spicy enough for me.
Step 7️⃣
Cut tomatoes into cubes. You can use any kind of tomatoes but the best are long ones ("Roma", "Giulietta", "granadero", "Juliet", "Plum"), as every long type of tomato is more "meaty", less "juicy"
Step 8️⃣
Boil and salt the water for your favorite pasta. Boil it until it will be 'aldente'. Time of boiling depends on the kind of used pasta, so follow the instruction on the package or check it every 1-2 minutes
Step 9️⃣
Remove the water, mix pesto with the pasta. Serve on the plate with tomato cubes on the top
Bon appetite!
All the photos used in this article belong to me.
@papi.mati