With all the beautiful vegetables that we receive from our CSAs I am busy trying new recipes to make the most out of them. One item that I have not used in the past are celery leaves. So I experimented with it several ways. First, I made a pesto, which I have as the recipe for today. You can use the pesto as a topper for gluten-free crackers or spice up a dish. I decided to spice up my zucchini noodles since my vegetable drawer was full of zucchini! Once I finished the pesto, I added it to the sauce of the Zucchini Marinara sauce. This adds a zing to the flavor and is a fresh change to the standard tomato-based sauce.
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ cup almonds
- 2-3 cups celery leaves (the more leaves, the more flavor it adds)
- ¾ - 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup Parmesan or Pecorina cheese (sheep's milk cheese)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- In a food processor, using a standard blade, chop the garlic cloves until completely ground.
- Add the almonds and celery leaves; blend until finely chopped.
- Scape down sides of the bowl.
- Blend while streaming in the olive oil through the feeding tube. Blend until smooth.
- Add the cheese, salt and pepper.
Blend garlic and almonds.
Blend in celery leaves.
Drizzle in oil to make a paste.
The final result – pesto.
After making the pesto, I added it to the marinara sauce. I added other vegetables that I had on hand – add what your family likes. I used leeks, pablano peppers and additional spices for the marinara like basil, parsley, thyme and oregano.
Zucchini Marina with Celery Pesto
Give it a try and let me know how you like it. If you have additions or substitutions I’d like to try them out. Post them here and share with everyone.
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