Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Mushroom Pesto Pitas

Submitted by Mango

Once again, I found myself craving pizza, but I wanted something a little different. Since I love to experiment with recipes and I was playing around with basil this week, this is what I came up with. These are less like pizzas and might better be described as pita appetizers. They’re crunchy and delicious. You can use store bought pesto for this recipe, but where’s the fun in that?

Ingredients

  • Pita Bread (Trader Joe’s brand regular or whole wheat pita bread)
  • 3 tbls Extra Virgin Olive oil, plus 1 Teaspoon (divided use)
  • ¾ cup chopped walnuts
  • ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 medium-sized cloves of chopped garlic
  • 2 tbls fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cup packed fresh basil
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh white mushrooms

Instructions

First you will make a batch of fresh pesto. In a food processor, process the ¾ cups of chopped walnuts, with the ½ cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, the 2 cloves of chopped garlic, the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Process just long enough to grind up the nuts with the other ingredients so that you can still slightly see the texture of the nuts, but not so long as to create a gummy paste. This will only take a few seconds. Pulse the processor on and off as needed and scrape the mixture down into the bowl of the processor. Add the basil and another tablespoon of olive oil until all of the basil is minced into the mixture. Take the pesto out of the food processor and place it in a small bowl and set aside. If you are preparing the pesto mixture more than a half hour ahead of time, cover and refrigerate at this time. Before you use the pesto in the recipe, you will need to set the covered bowl on the counter and allow it to come back to room temperature. When you are ready to prepare your pitas, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Take 3 pita breads and place them on a cookie sheet. Use the remaining teaspoon of olive oil and spread a light coating of oil across the surface of the pita breads. The easiest way to do this is to dip a paper towel in the oil and use the towel to spread the oil onto the pita breads. Divide the coarsely chopped fresh mushrooms amongst the 3 pita breads and spread the mushrooms fairly evenly across the surfaces of the pitas. Place the cookie sheet with the pitas in the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, just until the mushrooms start to look roasted. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and put teaspoon sized dollops of the pesto mixture onto the surface of the pitas. Put the cookie sheet with the pitas back into the oven and cook for 5 more minutes, making sure not to let the pitas burn and making sure that the pesto doesn’t melt to the point that it starts to run. You can serve the pitas whole, but I like to take a pizza cutter and slice them into wedges. This recipe serves 3.

Added Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader