Community Corner
Spinach Pesto with Potomac Vegetable Farms Spinach
In this week's edition of Cooking Locally, Potomac Vegetable Farms helps put a twist on the traditional pesto recipe.
Basil pesto is a summer staple in my family. Basil is an easy plant to grow and it has a high yield, so making pesto and freezing it is a great way to enjoy basil year-round. However, basil has a strong flavor, so I recently discovered spinach pesto as a milder but still tasty alternative.
Potomac Vegetable Farms sells their ecoganic vegetables at the Leesburg Farmer's Market. I picked up a bag of their spinach this weekend and decided to try to make some spinach pesto of my own.
PVF is a family-run farm that was started in the mid-sixties by husband and wife Tony and Hiu Newcomb. Early versions of the farm had land in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, not to mention Maryland. Today, there are two main locations: Vienna and Purcellville.
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The farm also has a high profile in the area, with their stands located in Vienna and Purcellville, in addition to stands at the Reston, Falls Church, Arlington, Leesburg and Takoma Park farmer's markets. You can even sign up for their CSA and have fresh produce delivered to you weekly.
Their spinach was firm and fresh, and made for an excellent pesto. Spinach pesto is great served on bread as an appetizer, alone on pasta, or even mixed in with a red sauce.
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Spinach Pesto
- 2 cups of Potomac Vegetable Farms spinach
- 3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tbs. pine nuts
- salt and pepper to taste
Put spinach, garlic, pine nuts and one tbs. of olive oil in a food processer. slowly add in the remaining two tbs. of olive oil as you're processing. Process into a puree.
