Be Green & Save Green by Cooking Without Recipes

While teaching cooking classes over the years, I’ve found that my students fall into two categories: the recipe followers and the free-for-all cooks. The recipe followers are often pretty good cooks - but they get nervous coloring outside of the lines. And while the free-for-all cooks cover a wide range of skills, they are usually in the minority.

I’m always surprised at how many people are intimidated by the idea of cooking without recipes. My great-grandmother, Nona Pearl,  was a Greek immigrant from the island of Rhodes and famous for her cooking. Typical of her generation, she never wrote any of her recipes down - if you asked for it, she would just laugh and say, “A pinch of this, a pinch of that.”

I’m about to teach some of the dishes she used to make in my cooking class, Old World Sephardic Cooking for PCC Cooks next month. Fortunately, my grandma was organized enough to write down versions of Nona Pearls’ dishes before she died. I’m testing a few of the recipes now (which I will post soon) and I’m reminded of how people used to cook: with whatever ingredients they had in the house so that nothing was ever wasted. Nona Pearl had 7 children to feed. My Papoo, the oldest and born in 1915, remembers his mother putting together meals for 10+ people with whatever she had on hand. Bones, meat scraps and onion peels were used to flavor soup and so . The term “food waste” did not exist in their world.

I recently read on Cheap Healthy Good’s blog how she was frustrated at wasting fresh herbs since you only use a little at a time. If I have extra fresh herbs, I’ll make a pesto - which is not dependent on basil but can be made with anything green: cilantro, tarragon, spinach, or watercress. After that, all you need is olive oil, a few nuts (I like to experiment with different nuts), garlic, a  little salt - and cheese, if you have that around.

Rather than buying a ton of expensive ingredients for a specific recipe, try using up what you already have in the house. Experiment. Throw things together. Look through your pantry for canned items that never get used. Have your kids join in. Go old school and make casseroles, stews, and chilis. Pull out that slow cooker buried in the cupboard. If you need a little help, print off a recipe from the internet - but just use it as a guide. As I tell my students, it may not turn out perfectly but it’s your very own creation. And you’ll get better at it over time.

I never measure anything when making pesto since I’m usually using up ingredients laying around but I did write this one down for you. Again, just use it as a guide and add your own flavor!

Walnut-Almond Pesto

I love pesto – I eat it off of a spoon. As far as sauces go, it’s pretty healthy, adds a lot of flavor and can be served on just about any dish. I used almonds and walnuts here because that’s what I had in the pantry. This recipe is made without cheese – I like having a dairy-free version in my refrigerator and then depending on what I’m making or who I’m serving, I’ll add parmesan into the pesto or the dish.

½ cup almonds, toasted
½ cup walnuts, toasted
2 cups basil leaves
¼ cup parsley, chopped
½ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (or more depending on your tastes)
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth. If necessary, add more olive oil for a creamier consistency. Serve it on pasta, sandwiches, fish, or in soups like minestrone. It keeps in the refrigerator in a sealed container for a week and in the freezer for several months. Freeze it in dinner size portions or ziplock bags for easy reheating.

*Cooking tip: be sure to mince small items like garlic before pureeing in a food processor - otherwise, they’ll flip around the blades and stay more whole than not.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Yields 1 ½ cups pesto
Recipe by Julie Negrin © 2009

Check out this great blog entry at A Might Appetite (one of my favorite blogs) about shrinking your “cookprint” and tips on making your kitchen more eco-friendly.