Dissident Island

What the hell is rocket? Well, rocket is great – it can be used as a leafy vegetable. It has a rich, peppery taste, and is exceptionally strongly flavoured for a leafy green. Using rocket mixed in with your salad will spice things up nicely. Rocket can also be cooked as a vegetable in pastas... In Italy, it is often used in pizzas, added just before the baking period ends or immediately afterwards, so that it can wilt in the heat. Rocket is rich in vitamin C and iron. It is SOOO easy to grow and is very hardy. Devoting a small area, heavily planted with rocket, will yield lots of yummy, peppery leaves for eating or cooking. And you can grow them in containers if you have a roof or a balcony but not back garden.

What goes in it:

A nice bunch of fresh rocket leaves (200g)
garlic
Pine nuts/walnuts/pistachio nuts
Extra virgin olive oil
Salted capers
Vinegar (apple cider but balsamic works too)
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Optional:

Yeast Flakes (Energyvita)

What to do with your ingredients:

Start out blending the leaves with 10 table spoons of oil and a clove or two of crushed or minced garlic, a table spoon of capers, a tablespoon of crushed nuts, and a table spoon of vinegar. Add more nuts, probably another 2 or 3 tablespoons, and more garlic, and then add salt and pepper for flavour. You can add in some yeast flakes (aka: energyvita). The consistency should be quite creamy but don't worry if you have chunky bits of nuts. The taste will be peppery and strong.

Tips:

Toss the pesto with fresh pasta (three color fusilli is always nice) and cherry tomatoes (another easy thing to grow in the garden) and serve hot or cold.
Another way to serve it up is to mince and fry an onion in oil, sautee some mushrooms, add some balsamic or wine, throw in the pesto, cook it for a bit and then add in pasta. The onion and mushroom sweeten the pesto and take of the peppery edge.