Italian Pesto Crêpes

I'll kick off this blog by saying that I married an incredible chef. So naturally, in our household, Michael does all the cooking and I do all the cleaning, except one day a week when we switch roles and I make a super fancy meal to try and impress him. For our last in-home date, I came up with Italian pesto crêpes to combine two of my favorite foods of all time. Incidentally, both are fairly easy to make from scratch in a Blendtec (which makes for easy clean-up too).

First, start with the pesto. Since I discovered this recipe, I'll never go back to store-canned pesto. Nothing can beat the FRESH basil and parsley, the garlic and strong asiago cheese (yeah, I accidentally used that instead of parmesan) that actually give it a kick, and the richness of the pine nuts. Basically, I'm obsessed with pesto now and try to put it on everything.

Fresh Basil Pesto

Ingredients:

• 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• 4 cloves garlic
• ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup pine nuts

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth paste. Remember to save some parsley leaves for garnish.

Yields about 2 cups pesto.


Set pesto aside in the fridge while working on the crêpes. This recipe is called "Awesome Crêpes" because it was invented by Michael after we tried out several different recipes. It's just the perfect combination of thin, fluffy, and springy. Leave the sugar out if you're going for savory crêpes, or if you're doing both dinner and dessert (as I did), try half the sugar.

Awesome Crêpes


Ingredients:

• 1½ c. milk
• 1 c. flour
• 2 eggs
• 1½ Tbsp. butter
• ⅛ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)

Instructions:
Blend all ingredients in a blender. Keep batter in the pitcher to pour directly onto the crêpière*. Pre-heat crêpière on medium. When hot, lift crêpière off the burner and pour about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter in the middle. Turn crêpière to spread batter around (do NOT spread with a spoon or spatula). Cook until lightly brown at the bottom (usually the top is cooked through at this point). Flip the crêpe over and lightly brown the other side.

Yields about 10 crêpes if made in a standard crêpière.

*If you're wondering where to get your own crêpière, here are two highly rated ones on Amazon:
Norpro 9.5 inch Nonstick Breakfast/Crepe Pan (this one's only $17)
Berndes 9-1/2-Inch Crepe Pan (this is one of the ones we have, and we love it, but it's $40)
You can also use a 9½ inch frying pan for similar-sized crêpes, but it can be quite tricky to get the crêpes out of a deep pan. 



Finally, assemble your Italian crêpes with the following ingredients:

Italian Pesto Crêpes

• Chicken breast, cooked, seasoned with salt, and cubed
• Mozarella, cubed
• Pesto
• Spinach
• Tomatoes

As a bonus, make dessert with the extra crêpes!