What's For Dinner: Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Baby Mizuna Pesto

The Epicurious Food Dictionary has this to say about mizuna: "Hailing from Japan, this feathery, delicate salad green can be found in farmer's markets and specialty produce markets from spring through summer." Seeing as we got a big ol' bag of it in last week's CSA box, I'd have to say that their definition is spot-on.

Because our refrigerator seems more often than not to be the place where good greens go to die, I've been trying to use up the greens as quickly as possible. Since mizuna has an interesting peppery flavor, I thought it might make an intriguing substitution for basil in pesto. In addition to several handfuls of mizuna leaves, the pesto also included some chopped garlic, freshly-grated Parmesan, toasted pine nuts, and some olive oil. The resulting pesto has a fresh, "green" taste and makes for an interesting new twist on pesto.

I immediately used the pesto in a whole-wheat pasta dish (pictured above) that also included some steamed cooking mizuna leaves and chopped asparagus.

Baby Mizuna Pesto (printer-friendly version)

makes about 1 cup

3 cups loosely-packed baby mizuna, rinsed and dried
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Add the baby mizuna leaves to a food processor and process until coarsely chopped.

2. Add in the chopped garlic, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese. Process until all ingredients are combined.

3. Slowly pour in the olive oil while the processor is on until a smooth paste forms.

4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.