Spinach Dip Pesto Pasta

The Spinach Dip with Artichokes, Cheese and Chiles was a winner, but my throw-everything-into-the-mix approach yielded a lot of that thick, spunky dip. Spunky? You know, a dip with attitude. The quantity might be a bonus when you host a party, but it's not so terrific when you are feeding a twosome. Now what? 

I used the peppy spinach dip as I might any pesto blend, adding it to a loose bechamel sauce along with pine nuts for a pasta topping. Mmmmm, yes! that made a pleasant pasta bowl for today's hot lunch, but now I'm eager to try an oven-baked version. Imagine a spinach pesto pasta macaroni and cheese sort of dish, with crisp, crunchy browned butter-tossed breadcrumbs on top. My taste buds are quivering in anticipation, but RL is losing his taste for spinach anything. OH! the fun I've had dealing with the challenge of that large, annoying 1-pound bag of frozen spinach.

Spinach Dip Pesto Pasta Sauce

(more suggestions than a recipe)

Prepare your standard béchamel sauce (white sauce); add a large handful of meltable cheese and heat to melt. Add more milk as needed to keep the mixture thin and loose. 

Add a cup or more of Spinach Dip with Artichokes & Chiles; stir over low heat until incorporated. Adjust taste and consistency as needed.

Toss with your favorite cooked pasta and a generous handful of toasted pine nuts. Serve in a warmed bowl or on individual warmed plates.

Spinach Dip with Artichokes, Cheese and Chiles

It all began with a well-traveled 1-pound bag of frozen spinach... seriously, well traveled. The label read "European Spinach" although it was packaged in China. I purchased it in British Columbia, stored it in the bottom freezer drawer throughout our 2000 nautical mile cruise in southeast Alaska, returned it to B.C. and finally thawed it out this week. Packaged in China? what was I thinking?! Likely I was in a last-minute provisioning rush and didn't pay attention to place of origin when purchasing. 

One pound is a lot of squishy, defrosted spinach; far too much of that healthy green vegetable to fill a dozen mushroom caps, stuff a few chicken breasts or even fold inside spanakopita. Spinach smoothies wouldn't be popular with RL for breakfast, neither would spinach quiche, spinach omelettes or a frittata. I searched the galley for inspiration, struggling to resist the temptation to quietly dispose of the bag and move on. Why had I even brought frozen spinach on board?!

A quick tour of the galley turned up a block of cream cheese, a smidgen of sour cream, a carton of Parmesan shreds, several green onions, one tall tin of artichoke hearts, a can of whole green chiles, one large lemon, a handful of garlic and a pocket-sized bottle of green Tabasco sauce. Aha! that old standby spinach dip... or a riff on my favorite Costco artichoke and jalapeno dip... or some combination of the two. I went with the combination impulse.

Layer most of the above items in the food processor, pulse to combine, taste and adjust. Let the machine do the work and focus on the taste testing. The fun came at the end when it was time to adjust the texture and play around with flavors. This version of spinach dip rated two thumbs up served cold with raw vegetables and crackers, but really drew raves after being heated in the microwave. YUM! 

Drat! I still had too much of a spinachy good thing for the two of us to enjoy as an appetizer snack. Fast forward to the next day (and my next post) when this versatile Spinach Dip morphed into Spinach Pesto Pasta. 

Spinach Dip with Artichokes, Cheese & Chiles

1 large 1-LB bag frozen spinach leaves, thawed
1 block cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise (or more sour cream)
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 bunch (6-8) green onions, green & white parts chopped
1 large can artichoke hearts, water drained & discarded
1 large can diced green chiles plus juices 
zest and juice of 1 large lemon
4 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
green Tabasco sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Toss everything into a large food processor bowl. Pulse repeatedly to incorporate; pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides.
Transfer to a heatproof serving container. Warm briefly in a microwave or heat in a 350 F oven until bubbly, about 20 minutes.  Or serve chilled or at room temperature. 

Pesto Tapenade... or Tapenade Pesto

Artichoke Pesto Tapenade in a Grilled Cheese Sandwich - SRC Reveal

Salty, savory bites are my favorites, no question about that, so those flavors were the drivers in my search for this month's Secret Recipe Club choice. I enjoyed browsing through nearly 4 years worth of Corina's posts at my assigned site, Searching for Spice, a UK blog packed chock full of sweet and savory items. Some sweets, like Rocky Road Squares, did tempt me, and I'll revisit them for the holidays. Corina's Cardamom and Pistachio Ice Cream sounded divine too, but this month I focused on her many savory recipes. Two fish preparations were strong contenders, one a Jamie Oliver recipe for white fish cooked with spinach, olives and tomatoes, and another for fish baked en papillote with olives and lemon. Olives drew my attention again in a tapenade. I sense a pattern there. Unable to decide between recipes for pesto and tapenade, I took the easy route and combined elements of both, adding a few extras along the way. It sounds a bit random, but it worked.   

What's the difference between pesto and tapenade? I Googled both terms and found the following at PoshGourmet:

Pesto [PEH-stoh] — This uncooked, herbal sauce comes from Genoa. Classic method is to combine crushed or chopped fresh basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil. 

Tapenade [TA-puh-nahd; ta-pe-AHD] — This tasty thick paste comes from Provence. The ‘classic’ ingredients are capers, anchovies, ripe olives, olive oil, lemon juice, and seasonings. It is classified as a condiment.

First up was the tapenade, a chunky mix of green and black olives, capers, fresh basil, lemon zest and juice plus a lot of garlic. Anchovies are traditional, and I do love them in dressings and on pizza, but the saltiness of this mix was already over the top. So I skipped the anchovies and added a dollop of Dijon mustard and a sprinkling of dried Italian herbs instead.

  

After a few quick pulses in a food processor the tapenade was almost what I was looking for - tangy with a bit of a bite. More fresh basil, some toasted pine nuts, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts and a cloud of grated Parmesan cheese joined the party, followed by a few drizzles of olive oil. Mix. Taste. Smile. Adding those traditional pesto ingredients moved the flavors along to a brighter result, less of a one-note, overly-salty, olivey taste. Oh yes, this final combination was seriously delicious!

So what do I call this merging of recipes - pesto or tapenade? Is it a sauce or a condiment? Italian or French? My Artichoke Basil Olive Pesto Tapenade is definitely not a classic...  anything. Who cares?! It is deliciously habit-forming, an assertive, flavorful treat. Yesterday it starred as a quick and easy Pesto Tapenade Sauce for pasta at lunch. Delicioso!

Today it was a Tapenade Pesto Spread that lifted an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich to a whole new level. Scrumptious! 

Use Artichoke Pesto Tapenade to build a muffuletta sandwich, or top a cracker or liven up some crostini. Try it as a pizza topping or ... well, whatever, be adventurous and try it in your galley. 

Artichoke Pesto Tapenade

inspired by 2 recipes from Corina at SearchingforSpice

3 oz pitted green olives
5 oz pitted Kalamata olives
2 Tbs capers, drained & rinsed
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
zest and juice of 1 small lemon 
large handful of fresh basil, roughly torn or chopped
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted in skillet until fragrant
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained & roughly chopped
a generous pinch of dried Italian Seasoning (blend your favorites)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
2 - 3 Tbs olive oil (more or less as needed)

Place all ingredients except cheese and olive oil in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse in short bursts until the pieces are roughly the same size, adding olive oil as needed to hold the mix together. Stir in the cheese with a spoon or spatula. Be careful not to overprocess or you will end up with an olive paste, still tasty but really ugly.

Taste and adjust to suit your palate. 
Note: To sauce pasta you may want to add more olive oil to loosen it up, perhaps add some hot pasta water to the tossed pasta and tapenade if you like it even saucier. 

Kale and Artichoke Grilled Cheese Sandwich

April is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month. An entire month honoring grilled cheese? Well,let the celebration begin, as though grilled cheese sandwiches needed any excuse to appear in my galley. Just thinking of that ooey, gooey goodness melted between crunchy layers of grilled, buttered bread brought on hunger pangs. The cravings got serious when I spotted Joy the Bakers's post for a Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Her filling ingredients were a riff on a favorite appetizer, Spinach and Artichoke Dip. Just one look at the photo of  stacked sandwiches and I knew I had to grill up my own version. 

Similar ingredients lurked in my refrigerator, though I had to get creative with a few items. Kale substituted for spinach, the heat from Crimson Fire (WSU's version of pepper jack) replaced the sriracha's kick, and I skipped completely forgot to add the sour cream. Deli-sliced turkey was a last-minute addition, a spur of the moment inspiration, but was totally unnecessary. Any trace of turkey flavor disappeared as though it wasn't part of the cast of players; it's mild flavor couldn't stand up to the bolder tastes of cheese and peppers. 

I built one sandwich on a jalapeno & cheese-topped mini baguette and a second one on multigrain sandwich bread.  

Grilling the baguette was little tricky. The rounded top tried to roll over on the grill pan and a sandwich weight (aka bacon press) slid right off. No matter, the cheese melted and the filling ingredients blended together into a delicious cohesive mass. Tangy yet mellow, smooth and crunchy in every bite, this was comfort food at its best.

RL joined in the taste test and added more salt and some green tabasco to his sandwich segments. I was happy with the flavors as cooked, or hungry enough to be non-critical. Later on I spotted a package of frozen salad shrimp in the freezer and considered another round of sandwiches incorporating shrimp instead of turkey... or maybe not. I know for sure that we will celebrate National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month again and again this month.

      

Kale and Artichoke Grilled Cheese Sandwich 

a description rather than a recipe

inspired by a recipe from Joy the Baker (original recipe)

1. Saute chopped onion and minced garlic in a lightly oiled pan over medium-low heat until softened. Add chopped kale and cook until wilted. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool. 
2. Add shredded pepper jack cheese, a pinch of salt, and a handful of drained, chopped artichoke hearts to the bowl. Mix with a fork until well combined. Taste and adjust as needed - this is your chance to get creative with other ingredients. (Sour cream? crema? mayonnaise? lemon pepper or lemon zest? hot sauce?)
3. Use two slices of bread or one split roll for each sandwich. Spread one side of each slice with cream cheese. Pile some filling onto the bottom slice of bread. Top with another slice, cream cheese side down, and press together lightly. 
4. Lightly butter the top side of a sandwich and lay, butter side down, on a preheated heavy grill pan, OR melt a dab of butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet and add the sandwich(es). Toast on each side until the cheese melts and the bread is golden brown.
5. Don't wait, slice and enjoy this treat right away.

Update: April 7, 2013
Check out the menu (link) at Monte Cristo, a Seattle food truck that specializes in gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Browse the site, you'll enjoy it and wish you lived in Seattle. 
More ideas for creative and tasty grilled cheese sandwiches (and a contest) can be found at FoodieCrush (link)
You could look for healthier grilled cheese makeovers at CookingLight (link).