Kalamata Olive and Roasted Garlic Pesto

The word pesto comes from the Italian word pestare, which means to pound or bruise. It can be anything that you want although in America we think of it as a basil sauce with nuts, cheese and oil. My husband thinks that I am the queen of condiments. I love anything saucy that I can spread on top of something else. I will use this on top of crackers (or my polenta and panelle hybrid), to top baked potatoes, stirred into cooked grains, on soup. This has a lot of uses. Here is what I did.

Kalamata Olive and Roasted Garlic Pesto
Makes about ½ cup or 16 half tablespoon servings

Ingredients:

2 heads steam roasted garlic, cloves only no papery skins
15 kalamata olives, pitted
1 clove fresh garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon brined capers, drained
½ teaspoon oregano, dried
1 lemon, zested

Directions:

Process until combined. You still want to see the flecks of green from the capers. It is just as easy to mince this with your chef knife it you don’t want to clean your food processor. Refrigerate in a sealed container until needed.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 18.4
Calories From Fat (47%) - 8.7

Total Fat - 0.97g
Saturated Fat-  0.01g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 72.82mg
Potassium - 24.91mg
Total Carbohydrates - 2.26g
Fiber - 0.2g
Sugar - 0.08g
Protein - 0.39g

Comments:

This is something that I made just for me. My hubby is not a big fan of olives which means more for me. Yay! If you like olives you will enjoy this. I could eat it anytime on almost anything. If you thin it out with a little lemon juice it makes a really tasty salad dressing. It is also good with a few sun dried tomatoes, fresh parsley or fresh thyme added.

Unrelated note:

So today has been a wait and see day with nothing much to report. I hate waiting around for an important phone call that doesn't come. I guess there is always tomorrow.

On a more positive note I found an interesting standing ab workout today at the Women’s Health website. I decided to try the moves just to see how it would work, thinking it didn’t look very tough. Since I was so convinced it was easy I used dumbbells during the moves. Now I should tell you it was a better ab workout than I expected. If you are looking for something different you may want to check it out.

I have a quinoa salad planned for this evening, and for lunch for a few days. With a little luck I will have time to post that tonight. I hope you are all having a wonderful day.