Pistachio pesto beef cheese burgers!

Pairs well with:

Pinot Grigio

You won’t need a bouquet of flowers when you share our Pinot Grigio. This crisp wine with floral aromas is a wonderful way to make an entrance.

I love Pesto sauce and thought why not a pesto burger but I changed it up by using pistachios! It is great on a hot summer day!

Ingredients:

Patties
2 ½ Pounds ground chuck (from the shoulder if at all possible)
3 cloves of garlic grated
1 tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil
1 ½ tablespoons of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of fresh ground pepper

Pesto sauce
1 cup of pistachios
2 cup of basil
4 tablespoons of garlic infused olive oil
½ cup of parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper

Arugula topping
2 cups of baby arugula washed and torn
1 tablespoon of crushed pistachios
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice

6 thick slices of tomatoes
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
6 slices of good quality mozzarella cheese
6 brioche buns split

Instructions:

Prepare or preheat grill to medium-high heat
To make patties, combine all ingredients in a glass bowl making sure not to over work the meat. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

To prepare the pesto, heat a medium cast-iron skillet over medium heat add the pistachios and cook them for 3-4 minutes depending how hot your grill is, you want them to get a little brown in color just to bring out more flavor and their natural oil but you don’t want to burn them (take the table spoon you also need for the arugula topping out of the toasted nuts and set aside) combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender, cover and set aside till later.

Arugula topping
Add all ingredients in a glass bowl and gently mix cover and set aside for when you are ready to assembly your burgers.
Make 6 patties out of meat mixture about ¾ inches thick with an indent on top made with your thumb of each patty. Brush grill with vegetable oil and place patties over medium-high heat, cook patties for 5-7 minutes on each side until you can easily turn the patties over making sure to only turn patties once. Place mozzarella cheese slices on the patties the last 3 minutes of grilling. Place buns on the edge of grill the last 2 minutes of grilling to toast just a little.

To assemble the burgers, spread the pesto mixture on the sides of each bun, place bottom bun on plate add mozzarella cheese topped patty, place the tomato on top of patty, then place equal amount of arugula mix on top of tomato, top with buns and serve!