Penne with Spicy Coriander Pesto (Vegan)

Cuisine is regional, but methods of cooking are not. If you compare two different cuisines, you will see similarities in many dishes. The ingredients used of course will be locally available ones, but methods of preparation and the courses of meals have many similarities. It could be due to foreign influence, but not always.

Pesto is one such preparation that can be compared to our South Indian Chutney. Pesto has nuts and chutney has roasted dal /lentils. Pesto uses Italian herbs and chutney uses Cilantro or mint. The reason for adding olive oil to pesto is to make it shelf stable. If you are using pesto immediately, there is no harm in using water. We use tamarind in chutney as acid and pesto uses lemon juice as acid part of it. I made an Indian version of pesto and made pasta out of it. This is one of the pasta my relatives and friends enjoy very much.

One year back - Banana Oatmeal Bread
Ingredients:
Walnuts - 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 6 or to taste (This itself makes it pretty spicy)
Cilantro / Coriander leaves - 2 cups packed (about one big bunch)
Garlic - 3 pods
Olive oil - 4 TBSP
Black pepper - 1/2 TBSP (See Notes)
Lime juice - from 1/2 a lime or 1 TBSP (Could use lemon juice too)

Method:
In a skillet, toast the walnuts till nice smell comes out of them. About 4 - 5 minutes depending on the how high the heat is. Set aside. In a food processor or blender, combine all the ingredients excluding olive oil. Start the food processor while slowing drizzling the olive oil. Run it till you get a smooth paste. You are done making pesto. You could add salt, but I prefer to add it to the pasta when I cook since I use over salted pasta water to thin down the sauce.

Assembling the pasta:
Here is how I made pasta using this pesto. I used about 2 cups of penne. 2 carrots peeled and sliced, 1 cup of frozen green peas and 2 red onions cut into chunks. Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Salt generously. Add peas and carrots and let them cook for about 3 - 4 minutes. Now add the penne to the same pot and let them cook till al-dente. Meanwhile, heat 1 - 2 TBSP of olive oil. Saute onions. When onions are cooked, add the cooked pasta and vegetables to it, pesto and thin down using pasta water. Only after you add the pasta water, add salt if necessary. Let it all simmer for 3 - 4 minutes and then turn off the heat. This is best served immediately just like any other pasta, but will heat up beautifully. If you are planning to save some, add more of the pasta water to make it very saucy so that it doesn't dry up.  You can use your favorite vegetables and the quantity of them can be varied too.

Notes:
You could add black pepper to the pasta when you cook. In that case, omit black pepper while making pesto. Black pepper and green chillies hit the palate in different places. That is the reason for adding both.

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Pesto Crescent Rolls - Indian flavor

This recipe is so much modified to Indian flavor, I cannot even call it Pesto roll, but since I don't know what else to call them, I'll stick to the above name. This recipe is adapted from here. I used a bread machine, but you can follow the explanation given to make it without the bread machine. What is different is it has no Italian taste or flavor except for the use of Olive oil. Here is the recipe for both rolls and pesto or should I call it chutney?

Ingredients:

For the roll:

1. 2 1/2 cups bread flour
2. 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 
3. 1 (1/4-ounce) package (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) quick-rising yeast 
4. 1 1/2 tsp salt
5. 1 tsp cumin seeds (I put them whole in bread machine. If you are making this by hand, slightly crush them)
6. 3/4 cup warm water 
7. 2 tablespoons olive oil
8. 8 Green chillies chopped
9. Handful cilanthro chopped 
10. 2 TBSP non fat dry milk
    
11. 2 pods of garlic crushed. 
12. 1 TBSP olive oil + 1 TBSP milk for brushing.

For the Pesto:

1. 1/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts
2. 1/4 cup of chopped cilanthro
3. 6 green chillies
4. salt to taste
5. Garlic 3 pods
6. Olive oil 2 - 3 TBSP

Method:

For the pesto:
Place all the ingredients except oil in a blender. Grind them while drizzling olive oil. Adjust the salt and Pesto is ready.

For the Rolls:

Since I used the bread machine, I followed the instructions in the recipe for breadmachine. Placed all the ingredients in the bread machine and selected dough cycle. When they were done, I divided the dough into half so that I could get mini rolls and not dinner roll sized ones.

Roll the divided ball of dough into as big as you can and divide using a pizza cutter as follows. I don't like to dust the surface with flour since it adds more flour. Instead, I spray the cutting board with vegetable oil spray and it takes care of the sticky dough. (This dough is not very sticky at all)

Another picture..

Now, place a tsp of pesto in each division. I actually have put more and you can see that in the rolled up roll too. I like more filling than the dough part.

Spray two cookie sheets with vegetable oil spray. Now, roll up from the outer side or wider side of the triangle and place on the cookie sheet seam side down as shown below. You can actually give it crescent shape if you are making big rolls. It is hard to do it with mini rolls.

 

Picture above shows only half of it. I totally made 24 mini rolls which you can make into 12 big if you don't divide the dough and roll them all once like the original recipe says. I forgot to take the picture after it had raised for 30 minutes. Let the dough raise for 30 - 45 minutes. It won't double in size. It raises in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and just before keeping the cookie sheets in the oven, brush with olive oil and milk mixture. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until golden. It is optional to brush the rolls with butter after they are done. They taste so good, that even my kids ate them without any fuss.

Happy Baking!! 

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