Pesto Pasta

This is something I eat at least once a week, but I usually cheat and buy the dried pesto packets at the grocery store and just add cheese and olive oil. For the first time in years I am growing basil at home this summer, and today it was finally ready to eat.

When growing basil at home, there are a few rules. It is important to not let the plants flower, because this changes the flavor of the basil. If flower buds do appear, cut them off before they bloom and cut the plants back so they do not bloom again. This is a great time to make pesto. Never cut off more than half of a basil plant, or you risk killing the plant.

My basil grew like crazy these last few weeks, and all of sudden the plants were threatening to bloom. Today, I pruned all the basil plants back to about 50 to 60% and made pesto pasta with the abundance of fresh basil I had cut.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups fresh basil, packed down
1 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (I prefer Romano)
4 T olive oil
1/2 t pepper
3-4 cloves garlic

1/2 lb pasta (usually half a box)

Combine all ingredients (except pasta) in food processor and puree until smooth,. Use a spatula to scrape sides, making sure all ingredients get pureed. This makes about 3/4 cup of pesto.

Cook pasta according to directions on box. Mix pesto with hot pasta. Serve garnished with more grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes

Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes

Yum!

Ingredients:


1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter
¼ cup canola oil
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp hazelnut liquor
2 ½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
2 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ cups milk


½ to ¾ cup Nutella


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. For best results have butter and eggs at room temperature before you start. 


Mix dry ingredients (baking powder, salt, and flour) in a bowl and set aside. Cream butter, oil, and sugar together in mixing bowl until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating at medium-high speed until smooth. Add hazelnut liquor (I used Frangelico) and mix well. Add milk and dry ingredients slowly, alternating between the two and mixing at medium-high speed until all ingredients have been added and batter is smooth.


Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers. Fill each cupcake paper only halfway with cupcake batter. In a separate bowl, microwave the Nutella for 20 seconds to soften it. Spoon about a tablespoon of Nutella into the center of each cupcake.

Using something thin (toothpick, chopstick, skewer… I used a meat thermometer), swirl the nutella throughout the cupcake.

Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Do not overcook, or the cupcakes will be too dry. Twenty minutes was enough in my oven.

Overfilling and overcooking = oops! The top fell off when I tried to pick up a cupcake from the first batch.

Let cool in muffin pan for 5 minutes before transferring cupcakes to a cooling rack. Makes 24-30 cupcakes.

These cupcakes should not need extra frosting; the Nutella acts as frosting.


References:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Amy-Sedariss-Vanilla-Cupcakes-236125 
http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/05/04/self-frosting-nutella-cupcakes/