Pinot Evil and The Possible Pesto Terror

Early one evening last week Brian and I were talking about what to have for supper. I had some Pinot Grigio (pronounced pee-no gree-jhee-oh) in the fridge I had bought a couple nights before. I'd seen it on Beverage World's $5.99 table and picked it up. The name of it was Pinot Evil and there were three cute monkeys on the label. How could I resist? Plus I couldn't remember if a wine I’d sampled about a year ago and enjoyed was Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc. I realized when I got home that day it was Sauvignon Blanc.

I of course considered the wine in the fridge before deciding what to cook for supper. I considered the ingredients I had and decided some sort of pasta would pair best with Pinot Grigio. Once researching pasta, I realized pesto was a key ingredient in many of the pasta recipes. Every pesto recipe, however, called for fresh basil. Well I didn't have fresh herbs (although hopefully by the end of the summer there will be some on my balcony)! I even tried to find recipes for dried basil pesto. No luck. They all wanted fresh…

I decided to make my own semi-pesto. Recipes I’d read called for pine nuts or walnuts- I used pecans. They wanted fresh basil- I used dried. I figured this was my first pesto ever- if it was bad I’d throw it out. I used bow-tie pasta as the base of my meal. I baked seasoned chicken tenderloins to chop and mix in.


After rubbing four chicken tenderloins with some extra virgin olive oil (EVOO as Rachel Ray would say) and a few spices (salt and pepper are in the gnomes, olive oil in the bottle that looks like wine, the others are the always-present Old Bay, Grill Time Chicken Rub, and a Cajun seasoning), I popped them in the oven as the directions say. After a few minutes I started my heat my water for the noodles. With the water on the stove, I got out ingredients for my pesto. I added a small amount of onion and jalapeño because they are two ingredients I love.

For the pesto I combined 2 ½ garlic cloves, 1/8 cup of pecans, a few small slices of onion, one large slice jalapeño, and ¼ cup EVOO. I mixed half of all my ingredients in a small food processor. At about this point I decided to pour my first glass of Pinot Grigio. The pesto mix looked good so I added the rest of my ingredients. Then I realized my pesto doesn’t look like pesto- I’d forgotten about the basil!! I then added about 1/8 cup of dried basil to the mix. It looked good and tasted, to the best of my knowledge, somewhat like pesto should. My only problem was that I now knew why the directions called for fresh basil- it is more leafy, earthy, and tender than dry herbs. The dried basil gave the mix more of a hard, chewy texture when it should have been somewhat creamy. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly was not of chef quality.

The Pinot Grigio was a tart flavor accompanying me in my cooking. Upon first sip one eye wanted to twitch, but the flavor was now growing on me.
The water in the pot began to boil, and the chicken (as far as the directions read) would be done in a couple minutes. I added the bow-tie noodles and oven timer went off. The chicken was still pink. I set the timer for another ten minutes after flipping each piece. Ten minutes would be the maximum time needed for the chicken to be done. This actually worked in my favor. The noodles needed to boil for another ten minutes, so it seemed everything would work out on time.
Once the noodles were done, I checked the chicken again. It looked questionably done, however it did not have the browned and herb-crusted finish I was looking for. I figured anther few minutes and the chicken would be good. I rinsed the pasta in cold water and waited. ‘Why not make good use of my time?’ I thought. I got the onions and peppers back out and sautéed just a small amount in some EVOO. I added the extra half of a garlic clove from earlier to the mix. Once the mix looked nice and flavorful again, I checked the chicken. Still wasn’t the crusty brown I was looking for!!! My noodles at this point were room temperature- I’d have to heat them up again to create my meal.

I turned the noodle pan and the sauté pan burners on low. I waited for my chicken. When it finally looked about done, I began preparing the plates. The pesto was a little clumpy and didn’t seem to cover all the noodles equally, so, as you can see in the picture, I added a spoonful of Cheesy Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan to each plate. It is an awesome sauce!!

Sorry if the sleeping cat distracts you!

Garlic was certainly a prominent flavor since it was in my sauce, in the veggie side, and in the pesto. It was good, but I will probably use a little less in the future. I could taste the acidity in the wine cutting through the simplicity of the pesto. It was a subtle, delightful taste… at least up until I mixed in the onions and peppers. I had added the onions and peppers because they are two of my favorite ingredients. They go good with- and add flavor to- so many things. But with this dish, the side of wine was feeding my taste buds such acidity that the acids in the onions and peppers were overkill.

Since I used the dried basil, it seemed more little pieces got stuck in my teeth than would have of I’d used fresh basil. With all that said, I give you a word of advice: 1) never use dried herbs when ALL recipes for that specific item call for fresh and 2) when using dry herbs, check your teeth after eating!!