Pesto Cornbreads

Featured Ingredient: Blue Cornmeal

I decided I wasn’t done with my blue cornmeal yet. The blue cornmeal pancakes from my previous post turned out so great, I wanted to use it to whip up another batch of something in the muffin tin. Cornbread and pesto are two marvelous items, so why not pair them together? These are really packed with flavor and make a great accompaniment to a meal or simply something your grab from the fridge for a quick snack. You’ll have leftover spinach pesto, but that is always a good thing. Add it to sandwiches, pasta dishes or try grilling potato chunks in a vegetable basket on the grill and mixing them with the pesto – this is really awesome.

I’d love to giveaway another copy of my cookbook Muffin Tin Chef to fan of the muffin tin. 

I have some additional blue cornmeal in the pantry, so I thought I would turn to my readers for some inspiration. The person who leaves a comment on this blog with the best TWO creative suggestions for ways to use blue cornmeal to make a muffin tin creation will get a copy of my book. I will announce the winner next Tuesday, so check back in if you participated. 

Spinach Pesto Cornbreads

Pesto: 

2 cups spinach, packed

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/3 cup walnuts

½ cup grated Parmesan or Parmigiano Reggiano

Juice of ½ lemon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place spinach, garlic and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times until coarsely minced. Add cheese, lemon juice and salt; process until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Through the feed tube add the olive oil while the machine is running until fully combined.

Cornbread: 

1 cup blue cornmeal

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

3 heaping tablespoons spinach pesto

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F. In a bowl, mix together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, pesto and oil. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Divide mixture among 12 standard sized muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes before unmolding.