Pesto and Tzatziki

Now these are two things you probably aren't going to see paired together often, but if it's what you have, you can make it work. In this case I had yogurt that needed to be used, as it was days from starting the process of transforming into a strange cheese. I also had a cucumber someone had brought into the office from their yard, a small bit of cilantro, and a bunch of basil. I needed a meal and thought pasta and a salad. First I prepared the tzatziki, a Greek sauce we often find on our gyros. The base of this sauce is yogurt, cucumber, and garlic. From there you can go where you wish. I grated the cucumber into the yogurt, added two smallish cloves of crushed and finely chopped garlic, and s&p to taste. A lot of times you will see this with mint or parsley as the green bits in it. I had some cilantro so I used that. I'm never opposed to the flavor of cilantro. When that was finished and I put it aside. Next I got started on a pesto I would use with some raviolis we had on hand. I ripped the leaves and some stems of a large bunch of basil and put them in a food processor (perhaps the one appliance every kitchen should have). I had olive oil, I had garlic, but I had no Parmesan nor pine nuts. What I did find though was some ground almonds in the pantry from my grandma's trip to Arizona and some Pecorino Romano, a hard, salty cheese like Parmesan. I placed all the ingredients and some red pepper flakes into the processor and drizzled in olive oil until I got the consistency I was looking for. Next, I added the boiled ravioli to a saucepan with a pad of butter and the pesto and tossed until they were fully coated. For the salad I grabbed some mixed greens, added the tzatziki and a fresh tomato, then hit the lot with a splash of vinegar (I had an orange muscat flavored one, but balsamic is perfect too). Then I plated the ravioli and drizzled some truffle oil to really make it pop (do that to pizzas, pasta, salad, antipasti and you will open a whole new world of flavor).

• Greek yogurt
• Cucumber
• Garlic
• Salt and pepper
• Cilantro
• Basil
• Olive oil
• Nuts (preferably pine)
• Parmesian or Pecorino Romano cheese
• Lettuce greens
• Vinegar (balsamic or wine)
• Truffle oil