JuanJo’s Farm Pistachio Pesto and Roasted Tomatoes Recipe, Spotlight on Goat Cheese, Pesto Equipment, Coffee Benefits Explained, Exercise Rewires the Heart
During my last trip to Chile for the olive harvest, I got into the kitchen with Juanjo Alonso, who oversees his family’s extraordinary olive farm, and watched him work his magic with our delicious fresh-pressed olive oil. Here is his recipe for pistachio pesto with goat cheese, which can be enjoyed in so many ways. I’m also sharing insights into coffee’s health benefits and how exercise works its magic on the body.
JuanJo’s Farm Pistachio Pesto and Roasted Tomatoes
JuanJo’s Farm Pistachio Pesto and Roasted TomatoesFor his pesto, JuanJo used semi-matured goat cheese rather than Parmigiano-Romano (see more in the Healthy Ingredient Spotlight in Newsletter). It was simple, fast, and stunning. He dolloped it on just-roasted tomatoes, and it’s equally delicious on bruschetta, as a sandwich spread, tossed with hot pasta and a splash of pasta water, served with grilled fish or chicken, and stirred into warm white beans.
Ingredients
For the tomatoes:
- 4 ripe tomatoes, about 8 ounces each
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 ounces semi-matured or hard goat cheese, finely grated
For the pesto:
- 1 cup shelled pistachios, raw and unsalted
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon, plus more to taste
- 1/3 cup finely grated semi-matured or hard goat cheese, plus more to taste
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
- Coarse sea salt to taste
Directions
Step 1
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Step 2
Halve the tomatoes horizontally and place them, cut side up, in a shallow casserole dish. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until they soften and begin to brown. Then top each half with equal amounts of the cheese and roast for another 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and lightly golden on top.
Step 3
While the tomatoes are roasting, make the pesto. Warm the pistachios in a hot, dry skillet for 2 to 3 minutes, just enough time to wake up their natural oils but not to color them. This keeps the pesto a vivid green.
Step 4
Pulse the pistachios and garlic in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Add the basil, lemon zest, and juice and pulse a few more times. Add the cheese and pulse briefly to combine.
Step 5
With the processor running, drizzle in the olive oil until the pesto becomes a spoonable consistency. If too thick, add more olive oil, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse. Taste and season with salt if needed. If desired, add more lemon for brightness, more olive oil for body, and/or more cheese for richness.
Step 6
Plate two tomato halves on each of four plates and spoon generous amounts of the pesto over each one.
Yields 4 servings
Healthy Ingredient Spotlight
Goat Cheese
Semi-matured or hard goat cheese is what gives this pesto its character and, because of its firm texture, it grates neatly. The flavor is more complex as well. Some to try are Midnight Moon by Cypress Grove, Vermont Creamery Coupole, Sierra Nevada Cheese Company Capra Bianca Aged Goat Cheddar, and Central Coast Creamery Goat Gouda.
Quick Kitchen Nugget
Pesto Equipment
JuanJo used a blender to create his pesto, but this recipe uses a food processor, which allows you to better control consistency when you use the pulse function—the texture is a touch more rustic, which better suits pesto. Either machine can be used, but I give the food processor the nod.
For Your Best Health
Coffee Benefits Explained
Texas A&M University scientists may have uncovered one reason coffee is repeatedly associated with healthier aging and lower disease risk. Compounds in coffee appear to activate NR4A1, a receptor that helps protect cells from stress, inflammation, and damage. These protective effects disappeared when the receptor was removed, strengthening the connection. Surprisingly, plant-based compounds such as caffeic acid seemed far more active than caffeine itself. The research, published in the journal Nutrients, offers one of the first direct links between coffee compounds and NR4A1.
“Coffee has well-known health-promoting properties,” said Dr. Stephen Safe, Distinguished Professor of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology, and Toxicology at Texas A&M. “What we’ve shown is that some of those effects may be linked to how coffee compounds interact with this receptor, which is involved in protecting the body from stress-induced damage.”
NR4A1 is part of a group of nuclear receptors that help control gene activity when the body is exposed to stress or tissue damage. In earlier research, Dr. Safe and his collaborators described NR4A1 as a “nutrient sensor,” meaning that it can respond to dietary compounds and contribute to the body’s ability to remain healthy with age. “If you damage almost any tissue, NR4A1 responds to bring that damage down,” he explained. “If you take that receptor away, the damage is worse.”
Studies have connected NR4A1 with inflammation, metabolism, and tissue repair. Each of these processes is closely involved in age-related conditions, including cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic disorders.
Large observational studies have linked coffee consumption with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and metabolic disease. However, those studies have generally shown associations rather than explaining exactly how coffee might produce protective effects. Dr. Safe and his team proposed that NR4A1 could be one part of that explanation.
The project involved researchers from across Texas A&M, including Dr. Robert Chapkin, Dr. Roger Norton, Dr. James Cai, and Dr. Shoshana Eitan. Their work helped show coffee’s protective effects in neurological models. The researchers found that several compounds in coffee can bind to NR4A1 and alter its activity. The most active included polyhydroxy and polyphenolic compounds such as caffeic acid. “What we’re saying is that at least part of coffee’s health benefits may come through binding and activating this receptor,” Dr. Safe said.
In laboratory models, these compounds also changed cell behavior in ways associated with disease protection. They reduced cellular damage and slowed the growth of cancer cells. When the researchers removed NR4A1 from the cells, those protective effects disappeared. That result provided additional evidence that the receptor helps mediate at least some of coffee’s biological effects.
Dr.Safe cautioned that coffee is chemically complex and probably affects the body through multiple biological routes. “There are many receptors and many mechanisms involved,” he said.
“What we’re showing is that this could be one of the important pathways.”
The study was designed to investigate biological mechanisms. It does not establish direct cause and effect in people or prove that drinking coffee prevents disease. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” Dr. Safe added. “We’ve made the connection, but we need to better understand how important that connection is.”
Fitness Flash
Exercise Rewires the Heart
In an animal study, researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK found, for the first time, that regular aerobic training changes the heart’s controlling nerves differently on the left and right sides of the body. The study, published in Autonomic Neuroscience, uncovered a striking left-right difference that may one day improve treatment strategies for irregular heartbeats, chest pain such as angina, and stress-induced broken-heart syndrome.
“The discovery points to a previously hidden left-right pattern in the body’s ‘autopilot’ system that helps run the heart,” said study lead author Dr. Augusto Coppi, Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Bristol. “These nerve clusters act like the heart’s dimmer switch, and we’ve shown that regular, moderate exercise remodels that switch in a side-specific way. This could help explain why some treatments work better on one side than the other and, in the future, help doctors target therapies more precisely and effectively.”
The project was carried out in collaboration with University College London in the UK and Brazil’s University of São Paulo and the Federal University of São Paulo. Using advanced three-dimensional imaging techniques known as stereology, the team examined how exercise changed nerve clusters that help regulate heart function.
After 10 weeks of training, rats that exercised had about four times as many neurons in the cardiovascular nerve cluster on the right side of the body compared with the left, relative to untrained animals. At the same time, neurons on the left side nearly doubled in size, while those on the right became slightly smaller. These findings suggest that exercise remodels the heart’s nerve network in different ways on each side.
“Irregular heart rhythms, known as arrhythmias, stress-induced broken-heart syndrome, and certain types of chest pain are often treated by dialing down overactive stellate ganglia—the paired small nerve hubs in the lower neck/upper chest area that send ‘go faster’ signals to the heart,” explained Dr. Coppi. “By mapping how exercise changes these ganglia on each side, the study offers clues that could one day fine-tune procedures like nerve blocks or denervation to the side most likely to help. The findings are early-stage and in rats, so clinical studies would need to follow. Our next step is to test how these structural changes map onto function and whether similar patterns appear in larger animals and humans.”
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