Nasturtium Pesto

Jaime Hamlin and I adopted the high school as chefs who wish to make a difference in our school lunch program through the Chef’s Move to Schools Program.

I made this pesto at our recent Back to School Night. With the helping hands of Bernadette Cormie, the school lunch director, and Kaila Binney, who is the head of Island Grown Schools, we provided the refreshments for the parents on this special evening at the regional high school last week. To replace the traditional doughnuts and coffee, we offered a sampling of all island grown foods - most directly from the school garden. The garden had loads of nasturtiums and we thought we would use them as decorations. Then Jaime suggested that we make a nasturtium pesto. I had never heard of nasturtium pesto before, but somehow I volunteered to make it. It certainly was the hit of the evening and at the end of the night, someone suggested a school cookbook as a fundraiser highlighting recipes from our school garden and including the pesto recipe as one of the first recipes. I turned to Jaime and asked her if the recipe I made was close to what hers was like and she replied that she had never made it before.

So here is my version which was super easy and surprisingly delicious. I put this in the Vitamix blender so the consistency was very smooth. I imagine you would get similar results using a Waring or comparable blender. You could also use a food processor for a chunkier pesto.

3 cups (packed) nasturtium leaves1 cup toasted pine nuts1 cup olive oil2 cloves garlic½ cup Romano cheesePut the oil in first and add the rest of the ingredients.Blend all the ingredients in a processor or blender. Keeps for 2 weeks Jaime and Jan with Nasturtium Pesto