Basil Parmesan Dip with Pita Chips

With six new recipes this week, I narrowed down our favorites to those Chocolate-Fig Oatmeal Bars, Avocado and Canadian Bacon Pizza and the rosemary-scented Rhubarb Shortcakes.

I picked a mess of basil from the garden because I finally got around to making pesto to freeze and well, the plants were getting a little crazy. I ended up taking more leaves than I needed, but not enough for another batch of pesto... after scouring through my piles of "to-try" recipes, I came across this Basil Parmesan Dip with Pita Chips, which sounded like a dashing mid-afternoon snack today!

Using the food processor that thought it was going to get a break after making the pesto (and no, I didn't bother to clean it first... lazy I guess!), the basil leaves I had leftover went in, along with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, a clove of garlic and fresh ground black pepper. Blend it through, making sure to scrape down the sides a couple times, and then taste for salt and pepper - we added a hefty pinch of fresh ground black pepper for bite, but went very easy on the salt as the cheese brought plenty.

You could serve this with your favorite crunchy chips or crackers, but pita chips are a favorite around here and making them yourself is a snap to do! Split and cut into wedges (this makes for a crisper chip - if you wanted to keep them on the chewier side, I probably skip splitting them first), the pieces were scattered into a single layer, given a healthy spritz with olive oil spray and seasoned them well with simply salt and pepper. Switch this up with what you like though... try a variety of herbs, granulated garlic, cumin, paprika or chili powder would be fun, or even dust them with cinnamon sugar instead if you wanted to take them in a sweet route. One note - you won't want to stray too far from the oven once they go in as they pitas are fairly thin when split and will not take long to brown.

With a pesto-like flavor, though much lighter with that tang from the sour cream, we both had a hard time trying to stop ourselves from eating the entire bowl of this addicting dip! This thick and creamy green-tinted concoction was spot on with the homemade chips, but when we make this again (which will be as soon as I can snatch enough basil off the plants), my plan is to try it out slathered on a thick slice from a crusty baguette - sounds like a perfect light lunch to me!

Recipes
Basil Parmesan Dip with Pita Chips