Recipe: Green rice with winter pesto

The 12 first courses lunch

March 20, 2011

Many years ago I find an interesting idea on a recipe book from the 70's: prepare a clover of coloured rice. The possibilities are endless: green with spinach, yellow with saffron, orange with pumpkin, purple with beetroot...
When I chose the recipes for the 12 first courses lunch I dusted off this old idea to finally decide... that the clover would have had a look too 70s, and I preferred more attractive solutions.

But I kept the idea of colored rice, and among the 12 first courses you will find this green rice, and also Yellow biriani with mint and walnuts and Cajun rice with thyme (red).

Bucks-horn plantain

I used some Buck's-horn plantain for this pesto: if you can't find, it use parsley or some tender celery leaves to add a fresh touch to your winter pesto.

This is a recipe from the 12 first courses lunch, so the doses are for small samples. Keep that in mind if you are considering only one first course.

Green rice with winter pesto

Ingredients
80g rice
8 slices of Hungarian salami
150g spinach
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp almonds
1 tbsp walnuts
1/2 clove garlic
2 tbsp buck's-horn plantain

Pesto

Directions
Boil the spinach and drain well. Blend with basil, almonds, walnuts, garlic and buck's-horn plantain.
Season the rice with the winter pesto, setting aside a few tablespoons for garnish.
Place the slices of salami into 8 small molds (like a muffin pan) and divide the green rice.
Bake in oven for about ten minutes until the sausage does not become crisp.
Garnish with a dollop of winter pesto.

A tip: this summer, try to store basil to have small basil cubes to use during all year.