Meatless Monday: Arugula Pesto and Kodak Gallery!

It's Monday again and since I'm loving the Meatless Monday campaign sweeping the nation, here is a recipe that is one of my favorites for pesto. It's a recipe from one of my three Giada De Laurentiis cookbooks! The secret ingredient is a jalapeno pepper. Mixed with spicy arugula it's a mouthwatering treat!

Spicy Pesto

*adapted from Food Network 

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 (2-inch long) green jalapeno pepper, stemmed, coarsely chopped and seeded
• 2 cups grated (4 ounces) Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 ounces baby spinach
• 3 ounces arugula
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound penne pasta
• Parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions

For the pesto: In a food processor, combine the walnuts, garlic, jalapeno, cheese, salt and pepper. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add the spinach and arugula and process until blended. With the machine running, gradually add the olive oil.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water. Place the cooked pasta and pesto in a large serving bowl. Toss well and thin out the sauce with a little pasta water, if needed.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with cheese and serve.

On another note I have some exciting news! As part of being part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with KODAK Gallery, I was recently selected to make a Quickstart Photo Book using some new Photo Book features on their site. These new features allow you to play around with the layout of your page and pictures by letting you quickly resize, move, rotate, and overlay photo images and text!

 I love to scrapbook but rarely find the time to actually get everything organized. However, with photo books you can quickly get organized and make a great lasting memento of a fun trip or occasion. I decided to use my millions of pictures from my France tour. However, I took so many photos of the delicious food in France that I though I would base my book on that. So, my photo book A Foodie in France was born. I had great fun putting the pages together and one awesome feature with KODAK Gallery is you can use photos from Facebook! How cool is that!

This is the cover of my photo book: A Foodie in France

The book hasn't arrived in the mail yet but you can bet I'll be checking the mailbox religiously until it does! I'm so excited! I will post some pictures of the final product when it arrives. Until then you can see a preview of the book below. Take a look and then go unleash your creativity by creating your own book!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirect.jsp?token=786446586310%3A820263140




More exciting news! KODAK has offered to give my readers 40% off a medium hardcover or large photo book of your own through the end of August! Go to www.kodakgallery.com/creativity until 8/31/11 to redeem this special offer. 




*By creating this post, I received a free photobook with Kodak gallery through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.