If for nothing else than to prove to the thirteen consistent readers of Chi Wulff that we’re not always knuckle-dragging, buckskin-clad, carnivorous rednecks who only consume meat grilled over hardwood flames, now and again we like to post a recipe that might seem (for us) somewhat highbrow and otherwise effete.
This week was She Who Must Be Obeyed’s birthday and that sent me packing for a bit more upscale dinner plan; rummaging through the recipe stacks this gem – Red Chile Pesto – from chef friend Libby popped up.
While I consider my childhood to have been fairly normal growing up in the sparse plains of the Texas Panhandle, pesto in any configuration and I didn’t cross paths until graduate school some years later.
And while I’ve heard of wimpish guided fishing trips now and again serving pesto at their pompous bankside river lunches, my river lunch discussion is typically more along the lines of ‘dammit, you’re sitting on the sandwiches again…’.
This Red Chile Pesto brings a refreshing southwestern spin to the game, worked great this week when I needed to score dinner points on the home front, and has enough backbone to stand up to the ribbing you’d get if you did pop open a container of cold pasta with pesto on the river this weekend.
I served this Red Chile Pesto atop a slab of cumin-dusted grilled halibut atop spaghetti tossed with a bit more of the pesto for SWMBO’s birthday dinner – score one for the knuckle-draggers.
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. pine nuts
2 tbsp. Parmesan, freshly grated
1/4 bunch fresh basil
1/4 bunch fresh cilantro
2 tbsp. red chile powder
1 tbsp. crushed red chile flakes (we often double pending who’s eating with us)
1-2 tsp. ground cumin to taste
Fresh ground salt to taste
1 cup good olive oil
Puree time. Dump all the ingredients into your trusty food processor and puree until well combine (we like it best with some texture). With the processor running, dribble in the olive oil.
Holds for several days in the fridge and freezes well.
Enjoy.
