Between my awesome patient bringing me the freshest basil ever and one of my best friends recently getting engaged to her sweet Italian hunny, it’s no wonder I was in the mood to put an Italian twist my next dish.
My patient gave me both green and purple basil- both so fragrant and colorful! So my first move was to make some pesto. After that, I incorporated the pesto into both the burgers and the salad, and the purple basil was chopped up in the modified caprese. Here is how I made dinner tonight:

Italian Turkey Burgers

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey meat

1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp toasted pine nuts

1/4 cup mozzarella, cut into little cubes (or I suppose you could use a little under 1/4 cup shredded)

1 tbsp pesto (see “Pretty in Pesto” entry for this recipe)- or you can just use some finely chopped basil- surely it will still taste good 🙂

2-3 tbsp panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup sub dried tomatoes (chopped)

1 egg

Process:

Burgers have the easiest process. Just toss everything into a bowl and mix it up with your hands. Form into patties. Cook them over med-hi heat- about 5 minutes per side. Once they’re done, sprinkle some parmesan over them for a melty, salty, awesome touch!

Caprese Arugula Salad

Ingredients:

Arugula (2 handfuls)

10 (ish) grape tomatoes, halved

6 (ish) small mozzarella balls, halved

Shredded Parmesan cheese (to taste)

Purple basil (or green if you don’t have any purple on hand)- I used about 8 large leaves

Dressing: 1 tbsp pesto, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2-3 tbsp olive oil- mixed together for best dressing ever.

Process:

stack your basil leaves, roll them up length-wise, and run your knife through them, creating strips of basil. Toss them on top of your beautifully assembled salad. Toss your salad with that awesome simple dressing you just made. Done- that was fast!

If there is one thing you decide to finally make from this blog, this is among the simplest and most delicious… I’d go for this recipe. Bon Apetito!