Spinach Pesto and Garlic Focaccia

There’s nothing quite like the herby flavor of basil pesto and rosemary focaccia, especially when put together. Unfortunately, we live in pressing times. Who has basil and rosemary on hand? Well, probably plenty of people—they aren’t particularly obscure ingredients— but not me. What I do currently have is giant bags of spinach and plenty of flour and yeast, which I am very lucky to have, as apparently it is peak baking season and yeast is not easy to come by. 

Anyways, not having the right ingredients is never an excuse to not put what the heart desires on the table. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that you don’t stop trying until you get what you want. If I want soft, flaky focaccia with pesto, then I am getting it. We have big goals out here, guys. 

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Now I’ve made pizza dough before, but this was my first time going anywhere beyond that. Baking bread is definitely an art and it’s one I’m still working on, but this was pretty darn good for my first try! The best part was I decided I wanted bread for dinner at 5pm and I didn’t have to wait for it to expand overnight. While I did use yeast, it only had to sit for an hour.

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4 steps to focaccia

1. Make the olive oil garnish over the stove. 

2. Combine the flours, yeast, and olive oil/herb mixture. Knead.

3. Wait a hot sec. 

4. Bake!

I used this recipe right here and made a few adjustments. Instead of thyme and rosemary, I used oregano, and instead of all-purpose flour, I used whole wheat pastry flour. 

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Focaccia Variations 

This is best served fresh out of the oven, but there’s plenty you can do with it later! You can serve it plain or with your favorite dipping sauce (ahem this is why spinach pesto is in the same blog post), make it the base of your pizza, make sandwiches, or dip it in soup.

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Spinach Pesto

As for the spinach pesto, all ya gotta do is mix. It takes 5 minutes, is super versatile, and has that pesto texture you need. We’re just gonna head straight into the recipe with this one.

Spinach Pesto

For when you don't have basil and pine nuts but want to add pesto to everything.
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Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 5 mins
Servings 1 cups

Ingredients
  

  • 4 cups spinach
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast optional
  • 1 tsp oregano optional // sub dried herb of choice
  • dash of cayenne optional

Instructions
 

  • Warm up the walnuts in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
  • In a high speed processor, add all ingredients except the olive oil.
  • Blend on low-medium, scraping down the sides and blending again until everything is broken down.
  • Add a little bit of the olive oil (~ 1 tbsp) and blend.
  • Repeat previous step until you're done with the olive oil. Blend to desired texture.

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Pesto Variations

The real question is here is, where shouldn’t you add pesto? Get creative here: add it to pasta, pizza, sandwiches, toast, nourish bowls, salads, and my personal favorite: combine 1 spoon of pesto with 1 spoon of yogurt for a creamy pesto-yogurt sauce.

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Big dinner goals: achieved.

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