Other Uses for Pesto

Besides eating pesto on linguine, there are many other ways you can use pesto.

1. Find the juiciest beefsteak tomato you can...slice in half, slather with pesto, broil till bubbly. messy, but with a good quality tomato more than worth the mess!
2. Mash it into cream cheese (try a ratio of 1 part pesto to 3 parts cream cheese, but you can go more or less, obviously). Add garlic, some plumped (blanched) sun dried tomatoes, whatever else you fancy and spread on crackers. Quick variation of the goat cheese terrine and Italian torta below.
3. Add pesto to grilled cheese sandwiches. Just use it as a spread before laying the cheese on the bread.
4. Spread on pork steaks with mustard and bake until cooked through and lightly browned. See Brian's Pesto Dijon Pork Steaks.
5. Add to scrambled eggs when they are almost set along with some cream cheese. Continue to cook just until the cheese begins to melt. I like to have little swirls of cheese in my eggs when they are finished.
6. Fill mushroom caps with pesto plus a cheese (the pesto cream cheese mixture above is good for this), sprinkle with bread crumbs and broil.
7. Goat Cheese, Pesto, & Sun-dried Tomato Terrine
8. *Italian Layered Cheese Torta

Uses for Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

The folks at Bella suggest the following uses for sun dried tomato pesto:

1. Stir 1/4 cup of the pesto into one 8 oz. carton of sour cream for an instant dip for vegetables.
2. Try the pesto as an omelet filling. Spoon about 2 Tablespoons of the sauce over half of a three-egg omelet; fold omelet over, and serve.
3. Stir 3 Tablespoons pesto into 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter. Serve the pesto butter as a bread spread, or toss it with hot vegetables.
4. Spread baguette slices with goats milk cheese or cream cheese and top these with a dollop of sun dried tomato pesto...a delicious prelude to the rest of the your meal.