March's Grilled Cheese of the Month - Locavore Pesto Mozarella on Ciabatta

This month, the grilled cheese is a mozarella with pesto.  But it's not your usual basil pesto, it's my locavore pesto.  Rebecca turned me on to alternate pestos.  Rebecca has sworn by her arugula pestos and I've been intrigued.  Once my arugula (12 plants!) takes off, I will try that.  In the meantime, I'll make my locavore pesto.

While my arugula is still in its infancy, my parsley is growing like a weed.  Additionally, I picked up a batch of sorrel from the farmers market.  For those of you unfmailiar with sorrel, it's a leafy green that tastes amazingly like lemon. The down side it that it wilts quickly and turns an unattractive khaki color when cooked.  This makes it a prime candidate for pesto.  Everything except for the parmigiano reggiano comes from a local source and in two cases, my yard.

Locavore pesto:

1 cup of parsley
1 cup of sorrel
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of walnuts
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup (at least) of parmigiano reggiano or any hard cheese - pecorino would work well
1/4 cup of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the first four ingredients in the food processor and blend until paste like.  Add the lemon, olive oil and parmesan and blend some more. 

This is just a Bay area spring on a spoon.  The flavors are just fresh and lemony.  Therefore, it needs a fairly neutral base for any dish it gets served with.  It was divine with ricotta gnocchi.  And its makes a great spread for a grilled cheese on ciabatta with mozarella.