If you’ve been following my blog, you have witnessed my latest obsession… Trader Joe’s sun-dried tomato and basil pesto coming together in a blender to make three awesome recipes! It’s been a long time since I’ve created one recipe that is so versatile! My Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta is where it all started and is also the base sauce for this recipe and my Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Soup. You literally just thin out the pasta sauce with broth or water and end up with an amazingly hearty and rich tomato basil soup. Serve with an adultified grilled cheese sandwich (try tomato, basil, bacon and brie on focaccia bread) and you’re in business. Yum!
The best part of this recipe is that the base sauce is made almost entirely in a blender AND it freezes so well that you can make it ahead of time. Just pull it out when you’re ready for a quick dinner, or in this case, an incredibly quick appetizer that tastes like you worked all day on it! Bring this to your next family get-together and you will be pegged as a gourmet cook, no doubt. Just bake the dip at home and warm it up in the microwave at your party to create an instant crowd-pleaser! I am a huge Trader Joe’s fan, so hopefully you have one in your area. If you don’t, it’s not too hard to find ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil and basil pesto to substitute.
I am all about making awesome food that tastes like you cooked it all day. Don’t worry, if you enjoy my recipes, your semi-homemade secret is safe with me! I also love that you can use this sauce to make DIY Lean Cuisine freezer meals. Keep this sauce on-hand at work for a ravioli lunch or for a quick tomato basil soup!
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Back to the recipe! Ingredients for the dip: I use one and a half cups of my Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta sauce, plus 3 ounces of goat cheese. Cut 1 Tablespoon of basil in ribbons for serving.
Cut one loaf of take-and-bake garlic ciabatta bread into 1/2 inch slices. Use a pastry brush to cover one side of each slice with garlic-infused olive oil. Press the oil-covered side of each slice of bread into grated parmesan cheese. This is the grater I use.
Here is the dip and bread, just before baking.
Cook the garlic parmesan bread and dip for 15 minutes at 350F for the perfect appetizer. To serve, garnish with 1 Tablespoon basil, cut in ribbons using these 5-shear herb scissors. Here is the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta sauce used in the recipe below.
Rating
- 1½ cups Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Pasta Sauce (see link above)
- 3 oz goat cheese
- 1 loaf take and bake garlic ciabatta bread
- garlic-infused olive oil
- grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
- Place 1 and ½ cups sun-dried tomato and pesto sauce into a heat-safe dish (see link above for recipe)
- Place three, one-ounce rounds of goat cheese on top.
- Cut a take-and-bake ciabatta bread loaf of bread into ½ inch slices
- Brush one side of each slice of bread with olive oil
- Press olive-oil side of bread into grated parmesan cheese
- Place bread slices onto a cookie sheet, cheese side up
- Cook the dip and bread at 350F for 15 minutes
- Garnish with ribbons of fresh basil
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