Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

As I mentioned before never never throw out your extra herbs, well the same goes for vegetables too! My mom gave me a bag of the sweet tri-colored peppers that were about to spoil, now I love peppers but I can only consume so much in a day and these babies were about to expire. No fear when in doubt throw it in a food processor and call it pesto!

Step 1 roast the peppers. Place peppers on broiler pan into oven preheated to Broil Lo setting. Once they start to char flip them over. When pepper are slightly blackened and the skin looks wrinkly remove from the oven.

At this point put them directly into a thin plastic bag (not a ziploc it is too thick), one that is thin and cheap and tie it in a knot. This allows the peppers to steam and helps the skin to separate from the meat.

Step 2 let the bag sit for about 10 minutes.

Step 3 remove the peppers from the bag (caution they will still be warm) and peel the outer skin off and discard, some places are more stubborn than others. Just do the best you can to remove the majority of the skin.

Step 4 pat yourself on the back because now you can roast any and kind of pepper.

*Do not wash the seeds from the any peppers with water. Some people use water but I learned that basically strips away the flavor. So if you want the seeds removed open the pepper when it has cooled and just use your hand to slide them out. I only remove the seeds from bell peppers and poblanos.

Now for the easy part:

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1 cup packed fresh basil

1 1/2 cups roasted peppers

*(I used about 1/2 cup sweet peppers and 1 cup red bell peppers)

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 clove garlic

Put all ingredients in food processor and process to pesto consistency.

*I saved the extra juice from the roasted peppers, add this in at the end to get the desired consistency.

This was soooo yummy on my Udi's gluten free pizza crust piled high with veggies. I also used it in lasagna and for a sandwich spread. Oh yes and I just ate a spoonful here and there because it was that good!