A Little Green...

A few weeks ago, I bought a bunch of dill to make a potato gallette I saw in a magazine. But then I had leftover dill. So I made orzo with cherry tomatoes, feta and dill (which I found on my epicurious app) which left me with extra feta, dill and a lemon. The lemon and dill went into an arugula salad with herbs, roasted asparagus and eggs (from an old Vegetarian Times), which left me with extra arugula that went into an arugula edamame dip (another epicuriuos recipe). And so on and so forth until Saturday afternoon. I found myself with some orzo, which I cooked al dente adding some spinach in the last few minutes. I also had some lemon and dill, which were mixed together with some olive oil, oregano and garlic, and some feta. I mixed the dressing, put the feta on top and added the hot pasta to melt it all. Absolutely delicious.

So I thought I had this Greek thing down. Some lemon, some garlic, a little feta and you're golden. Maybe some olives, because whats Greeker than that? I may have been a bit over confident.

Tonight I decided to make a Greek inspired pesto. It had green olives, lemon, capers, walnuts (that's Greek, right?) and garlic mixed in with flat leaf parsley and enough olive oil to make it saucy. I'm not saying it was bad (Mike and I really enjoyed it) but I'm missing the mark on the flavor profile.

Not Quite Greek Pesto

1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I think if you took it up to 1/4-1/3 cup it might help)
6 large green olives (again, more of this might up the missing Greek Factor)
1-2 tablespoons of capers (and the juice that fell in while I added them)
1-2 cloves of garlic (my olives also had garlic centers so I only needed one)
1/2 cup of walnuts
Enough oil to make it a creamy saucy consistency (I'd guess 1/3-1/2 cup)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Process everything but the oil in a food processor until everything looks as small as you'd see it in a pesto (super helpful, I know), then slowly stream in enough olive oil to make it creamy and the saucy consistency you're looking for.

I poured mine over some fresh pasta and added a bunch of feta.

And then I ate it while watching Greek.

I guess that's as Greek as I'm getting for now.