I recently got to spend some quality time in Toronto with my older brother, Kyle, and his little family of three. They live just East of downtown Toronto in a sea of condo buildings, where you’d think nothing would grow. But if you’ve ever visited Kyle in the summertime, you’d know that no matter the size of his condo patio–it will be plum full of herbs and veggies that are ripe for the picking.
One thing Kyle is not short of, like many Canadians right now, is in bloom chives. His brand new building actually has a whole rooftop full of them! So when I was visiting we had the best intentions of making some chive pesto for dinner. That never happened because his 9 month old daughter, Eleanor, kept distracting me with her absolute cuteness. All of a sudden my trip was over, and we hadn’t made our chive pesto.
Luckily my own garden has an abundance of chives, so when I got home to a baby free Vancouver, the first thing I made was this chive pesto with my backyard chives. I don’t think I’ll ever get over being able to walk into your backyard and source your own ingredients for dinner.
This recipe turned out really well. I don’t normally eat pasta in the summer because it can often feel too heavy, but this pesto is perfect for spring, and would even taste great cold.
- 4 cups of fresh, roughly chopped chives
- 1/4 cup of slivered almonds
- 1 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- spaghetti
- reserved pasta cooking water
- Bring a pot of water to boil and cook pasta as directed--make sure to save the starchy water when you drain the pasta, as you'll need that for later
- Place remaining ingredients in a food processor, and blend until smooth
- Combine cooked pasta and your chive pesto in a bowl, and slowly add your reserved pasta water until the pasta is nice and creamy. I used about 1 cup, but start with 1/4 cup, and add more as needed.
- You can eat the purple flowers from blooming chives! They are actually a delicacy in some cultures.
You can eat now!
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