Roasted Vegetable Terrine with Arugula Pesto

A few days ago, I whipped up this gorgeous beauty for a special weeknight dinner. It's the "Roasted Vegetable Terrine with Arugula Pesto" from The Artful Vegan, one of Millenium Restaurant's two cookbooks. It took some time to grill up all the veggies, and they didn't quite all fit in the cake pan, but the end result was truly beautiful, not to mention totally delicious. This is a make-the-day-before dish, because after putting in all the veggies, you pour in a little agar dissolved in water, to bind the whole thing together. I couldn't believe how perfectly it came out of the mold!

As the book suggested, I served it up with some socca (aka farinata, aka cinque e cinque), a lovely little flatbread made with chickpea flour. By luck, it was a very hot day and a warm night, and it was just perfect to have some grilled veggies. I'm not generally much of an arugula fan, but this arugula pesto is really superb and was great with the veggies and cinque e cinque. All that zesty bite that arugula has was a perfect complement with the sweetness of the veggies.

Here's a slice the next day, with better lighting. You can see all the pretty colors: red onion, yellow summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, red bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper.

Incidentally, it really made a LOT of roasted veggies... so for the next two nights we used up the left overs of both veggies and arugula pesto in some grilled panini (along with a big slab of fresh heirloom tomato). These sandwiches were served up with some kale and cannelini beans, roasted brussel sprouts (our first of the season!), and a big bowl of watermelon and white peaches for dessert. SO Freaky Good!!!