Radish Leaf Pesto Pasta

During the fall of my junior year of college, I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in one of the most beautiful cities in the world - Florence, Italy. This was one of the best times in my life, and I have been dying to go back! Being surrounded by my best friends, delicious food and wine, and gorgeous art and architecture made it close to impossible to leave at the end of the semester. One of the best parts of the study abroad program was all of the extra-curricular activities that they arranged for students: day trips to other cities, tickets to soccer games, wine tastings, volunteering in the community, and cooking classes (side note: the other highlights include a 3-week orientation in Lido di Camaiore, a beach resort town, and the most delicious meal plan).

Firenze...la città più bella del mondo

The cooking classes were always the fastest to fill up - no surprise there! I learned some of the most delicious recipes in those classes, including a recipe for one of the best Italian soups, papa al pomodoro (recipe will be in a later post - maybe when tomatoes come in the CSA!). One of my favorite classes that I took was a pesto class, where we made a traditional basil pesto and a Sicilian pesto with tomatoes and sardines, different yet delicious. Pesto itself just means "to grind with a mortar and pestle", so any type of sauce made via this method is considered pesto. In an attempt not to waste anything from our CSA, we used the leaves from our radishes to make...

Radish Leaf Pesto

Ingredients:

• leaves from one bunch of radishes, rinsed with stems removed
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 Tbl olive oil, more to taste
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, more to taste
• salt and pepper
• optional: 1 can tuna (not shown)

Directions:

1. Place garlic cloves and olive oil in food processor. Process until garlic is finely chopped.

2. Add radish leaves, process until mixture begins to form a paste.

3. Add cheese, salt and peper to taste, and additional olive oil, if needed.

4. Pour over pasta and add tuna. Enjoy!

The pesto was surprisingly really good! On its own, it tasted a little more bitter than traditional basil pesto, but on pasta it tasted great. To be honest, I had to google if radish leaves were poisonous before we ate dinner - good news, they're not! So far, this has been the most creative dish we've made from the produce from our CSA...it's only week 2, so who knows what we'll be making by Thanksgiving!