This was a banner year for the basil in our garden, so of course I set out to make as much pesto as I could. But while my food processor whirred and whirred week after week, I began to wonder about the different ways to eat all this green goodness. Yes, we mix it with a cup of curly pasta for a quick lunch. On occasion we stir a spoonful into a splash of oil and vinegar for a tasty salad dressing. There’s always pesto pizza or pesto-topped toast. But when my daughter brought this recipe home from a cookbook she happened upon at the library, I was thrilled. A search around my shelves and the web turned up lots of pesto cheese straw recipes but none quite like this. We’ve made it a couple times and we all agree: It’s a hit!
Inspired by The Cookbook for Girls by DK Publishing
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp. fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup of gruyère or cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
- 1 medium egg, plus 1 egg yolk
- 3 Tbsp. pesto
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix together flour and salt.
- Add butter. Cut in with knives or hands until it looks like fine bread crumbs.
- Stir in the cheeses.
- Beat together the egg and yolk, then stir them into the flour. Add pesto.
- Mix until the dough holds together enough to form a ball.
- Roll out dough onto a piece of parchment paper sprinkled with flour until the dough is roughly an 11 x 9-inch rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise and then cut each half into about 15 straws.
- Place straws on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Put in freezer and chill for 15 minutes.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
- Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack or serving dish.