“Pesto” Pork Chops with Pesto Rotini

(non-breaded on left; breaded on right)

After BB gave me the generous birthday gift of a hand blender a few weeks ago, I’ve been wracking my brain thinking about all the things I’d wanted to make with it that led to my whining about the darn thing for months prior.  I orginally wanted to break it in by giving an edamame puree (my invention) a try, but after my boyfriend repeatedly declared that he doesn’t like edamame (which is a lie: I’ve seen him eat them straight from the pod before), I had to resort to other dishes. 

Enter: pesto. 

Pesto, apparently, isn’t quite what I thought it was.  I’d thought “basil, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper” but it turned out that there’s pine nuts in there too!  Imagine my surprise, so off I hopped to Whole Food to purchase raw pine nuts. 

Once I got back, I set my pan to low heat and tossed in an even layer of the pine nuts to toast.  I tossed them around in the pan a bit until the fragrance was amazing and the nuts had just started to brown a bit, then I turned off and removed them from the heat, set them aside to cool a bit.  In the meantime, I sliced up a bunch of basil and two cloves of garlic. 

After my nuts had cooled down sufficiently, I popped them into the bottom portion of the food processor looking attachment and added the basil & garlic, a bit of salt and fresh ground black peppet.  I pulsed it for a bit then added olive oil and pulsed again, until it reached my desired consistency (thick, but creamyish).  I spooned the entire mixture into a small container, then covered with a thin layer of olive oil to prevent it from going bad (this from what I’d read from various pesto recipes: “Air is the enemy of pesto”).  I put the whole thing in the fridge. 

Now for the interesting part: what do I put it on besides pasta?  I decided to try it with pork chops.  But to brush it on, then grill, or to brush it on, then dip in bread crumbs?  For you, dear readers, I decided to try it both ways. 

No recipe because I just told you the directions- so simple, just brush it on and throw on a hot pan, or brush it on, coat with bread crumbs, then throw in hot oil.  That was it!  (I took the remaining pesto and tossed it with rotini that I’d cooked al dente (along with a spoonful of the water I’d boiled it in, to help it stick), and added some sliced cucumbers to my plate just for some veggies so I could pretend to be healthy.  Also, my boyfriend seems to like the cucumber thing, so I’ll take it where I can get it…)

Quite honestly, the breaded version (and probably therefore slightly less healthy version) was much tastier than the non-breaded version, but neither way really tasted of pesto.  The pesto really shone through, however, in the rotini.  It was just the right mix of basil, garlic, and creamy nuttiness. 

Back to the drawing board, I suppose, if I want to make pesto pork chops, but this way worked out quite nicely for me.  The breaded pork chops were really juicy, quite tender and overall delicious.  Yummy!

Enjoy and happy eating!!!