Pesto
Pesto is great to serve with all sorts of dishes. Use it as your pasta sauce, serve it on toasted baguette slices, or add it to the top of thick vegetable soups. It’s wonderful served with simple salads like sliced Roma tomatoes with bocconcini mozzarella and a sprinkle of fleur de sel (or another good salt).
In the recipe below, hold off on adding the grated cheese if you’re not planning to use the pesto right away. (If you are, go ahead and add it.) You can spice up this pesto by adding a little cayenne pepper, sweeten it a bit more by adding minced sun-dried tomatoes when you process, or make it saltier by adding things like minced kalamata olives (minus pits) to your processor. These aren’t traditional steps, but they’re tasty.
The basic version below uses a food processor, but you can also prepare by hand using a mortar and pestle and some elbow grease. When you’re ready to store, if you cover your pesto (minus cheese) with a thick layer of olive oil and seal tightly, it will keep safely in your fridge for up to three weeks. You can also divide the pesto up in an ice cube tray, freeze, then wrap each “cube” well in saran and a Ziplock and store in your freezer for months (a good way to still get to enjoy basil in the dead of winter).
Ingredients:
1 very large bunch fresh basil leaves (washed, patted dry, with stems removed)
1/8 cup pine nuts
1-2 garlic cloves (depending on how “garlicky” you like things)
Grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese (approximately 1/2 cup)
extra virgin olive oil
pinch salt and white pepper
Remove stems from basil leaves (stems add bitterness). Rinse off leaves and pat very dry. Add to food processor (don’t process yet).
Add 1/8 cup pine nuts to processor. (It adds nice flavor if you toast the pine nuts in the oven for a few minutes at 350F first, but it’s not necessary.)
Peel garlic cloves and discard the germ in the center of each clove. Chop the cloves and add to processor.
Add 1/2 cup of grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese to processor.
Begin to process, just for 5-10 seconds or so, being sure to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl so everything will be cut to the same size. (If you have a “purée” setting on your processor, don’t use it, because you want your pesto to still have some “bumps” and texture. Use a more gentle setting, or the “pulse” option, if you have it.)
Slowly drizzle in just 1/2 Tbsp or so of olive oil, and process another 3-4 seconds (you don’t want to over-process).
Repeat this previous step until you reach the pesto consistency you like (I generally like it when it’s fairly thick).
Sample, and add just a pinch of salt and white pepper to taste.
Buon appetito — il pesto è felicità!