Enough with the red sauce. It's time to think green.
Summer remains largely elusive, but some things in the garden have done delightfully well. Already one eggplant has been sliced and fried. My pepper plants -- from jalapenos to yellow bells -- are heavy with offerings. And my cucumber vines are finally giving up their deliciousness, which require only a quick peeling and a dash of salt.
Great activity also reigns in the herb bed. While my flat leaf parsley can't seem to get going, my other herbs are loving the warm days and cool evenings. I have a hedge of tarragon. My oregano shrub is being visited daily by some of the most wicked pollinators you could imagine. At the top of my own personal favorites list is the sweet basil, and my tiny basil forest of six plants has, at last, reached a point where I can do some serious harvesting. This, of course, of course means that it's pesto time.
I will concede something right off the bat. My pesto is not a classic Italian pesto. I apologize to those of you who have bicycled through the mountains of Italy and experienced real, hand chopped pesto, with it's unrivaled blend of basil, olive oil, pine nuts, and freshly grated Romano cheese. Mine is Americanized. It's heavy on the garlic. It uses walnuts instead of pine nuts, mostly because walnut pieces are markedly less expensive than pine nuts, and it uses store-bought Trader Joe's Argentinian Parmesan cheese that has been pre-pulverized.
But I don't cheat on my basil. I make Pesto, if I'm lucky, three times a year. I usually make three to five cups at once, use some, and freeze the rest. It freezes well, which is great because I can pull it out again in January and enjoy a taste of sunshine in the dead of winter. To me, the key to pesto the basil. It is to get the leaves - no stems - right off of your plants, at the height of their growing season. This is when the plant's oils are most potent, and when it's leaves are the most sweet. It is why I grow basil, and why you, if you also love pesto, should spring for that pack of basil seeds.
Another great thing about Pesto is that it begs experimentation. The recipe below is not a mandate. It is a suggestion. The measurements are a starting point for a recipe that requires little more than an idea and food processor. Taste it as you go. If there's too much garlic, add more cheese and basil, if it's too dense, add more oil or a few spoons of pasta water.
Also, use it on whatever you like: straight-up with tortellini, saute some shrimp and toss it with linguine, grill some chicken and throw it over penne. Make a pizza. Make a sandwich. It's all up to you.
Pesto
2 cups packed basil leaves, washed and patted dry.
6 cloves of garlic*
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1 cup grated Parmesan
Salt
Pepper
1 cup extra virgin olive oil.
* if you are less of a garlicphile than I, start with 3 cloves and work your way up.
Method
1. Toss your garlic in the food processor and obliterate it.
2. Throw everything but the olive in and grind to a paste.
3. With food processor running, slowly pour in your oil and blend until everything is mixed.
4. Taste. Play.
Comments