Pesto Crepes

One evening as I stopped by at my friend's place on the way back from work, she mentioned to me that she had a huge amount of basil and was wondering what to do with it. So as we chatted over coffee, I suggested she use it to make pesto and freeze it. So as I called out the ingredients, she made the pesto right then; she gave me the other half to take home and so I did the same as soon as I reached.

Very simple to make this pesto - basil, walnuts, garlic and olive oil. Thats all you need. Really. Once it was ready, I froze it in three separate boxes so I could pull them out as needed.

And thats what I did the next Sunday morning, using a recipe I had seen in Nigella Express. That recipe was for pesto crepes with ham. We don't really eat ham that much- so all I had was chicken sausages and after cutting them fine and lightly sauteeing them, I added them to the batter itself instead of rolling them up inside the pancakes as the recipe did with ham.

This recipe makes about 8 medium sized crepes or 5 large ones. Took me about 5 minutes to mix everything together, another 5 minutes to rest and then 12 minutes to make the crepes. I put some shredded cheese into them, just before rolling them up to serve, but you could also put the cheese into the batter itself. A really quick breakfast option and very very delicious. The pesto made the crepes very flavourful and you don't need anything to accompany them.

P.S - I've been doing some spring cleaning around the blog - on the right are updated links to some of my favourite blogs; still some more blogs to add.
I have also updated the Recipe Index - so please feel free to browse through older recipes and do let me know if you have any requests in a particular cuisine/meal/food group.

For the Pesto: (adapted from a Jacques Pepin recipe)


4 cups basil leaves
6 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin is good for this)
3/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
1 green chilli chopped
4 cloves garlic

1.Bring a vessel of salted water to boil and put the basil leaves into it for just 20 seconds. Drain and rinse in cold water. Pat dry slightly
2. Puree the basil leaves along with the walnuts, green chilli and garlic adding half of the olive oil at first and then the rest slowly.
3. Remove and freeze.

For the Crepes: (adapted from Nigella Express)
1/2 cup pesto
3/4 cup flour
1- 1 .5 cups milk
salt to taste
1 egg
pinch baking powder

1 sausage finely chopped and sauteed for 2 minutes
Grated cheese - 1 cup

1. Mix all the ingredients together (except baking powder, sausages and cheese) and blend till smooth.
2. Add chopped sausages and rest for 5 minutes.
3. Heat a griddle and put a few drops of oil or butter on it.
4. Pour a big ladle of batter on the pan and swirl till it spreads into a circle - if too thick, add some more milk.
5. Cook on a low medium flame for 3 - 4 minutes, then add some of the grated cheese in the middle and roll up with a spatula. Turn the roll over and cook for a minute before removing from flame.

Serve warm.