13 January 2014
Welcome friends. I always look forward to seeing what made the Saveur 100. Last week I was looking at it, and tomatoes were touted as summer in a can. This note was talking about farmers and the specialty tomatoes grown in Italy. I love the heirloom tomatoes that show up at the end of the summer at the local farmer's markets. I've never been to Italy at the end of summer to enjoy their tomatoes, but I bet they are good.
Tomatoes, however are not what I look forward to each summer. As you might of guessed from the name of this site, I am a bit of a basil junkie. I love going to the farmer's market in July and getting a large bunch of fresh basil. I rinse the leaves off in the sink at work so they have time to dry before I go home in the evening. Once I get home, I make a batch of pesto for the week.
Basil and tomatoes are a great pairing, so when the heirloom tomatoes start showing up at the market I might make a pesto pizza. But I also like pesto with gnocchi, zucchini, chicken, or rice. I make some to freeze and thaw it out at the end of February when I am tired of the gray days and cold weather. If you are planning on freezing your pesto, you just need to omit the cheese.
Whenever I give someone my basil pesto recipe, I recommend that they get their basil from a local farmer's market. There are two reasons for this. My recipe uses a lot of basil, and the market basil has a great flavor for a good price. I've tried growing basil in pots, but the stuff that I grow never gets enough warm weather to amount to much. The only basil that has done well for me in pots is Thai basil. It seems to flourish, even if the nights get cool.
Basil Pesto
25 min. prep time
Ingredients
makes about 1 cup
- 4 cups fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1 clove of garlic, diced
- 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- pinch of sea salt
- 1/3 cup parmigiano reggiano, grated fine
- 1/4 cup pecorino romano, grated fine
Directions
place the clean, dry leaves in a food processor. Add the olive oil and process until the leaves are chopped fairly fine. Stop and scrape the sides down a few times during processing. This will take 2 or 3 minutes. Add the pine nuts, garlic, and lemon juice. Process until everything is finely ground, about 2 more minutes. Add the salt and cheese and pulse until it is combined. Taste the pesto and add more salt if needed.
store in an airtight container. I like to use a shallow plastic container and press plastic wrap down over the pesto. Keep in the refrigerator.
When you are ready to use the sauce, place 2 or 3 tablespoons in a small bowl. Add about 1 tablespoon of the pasta water to the pesto and stir. If you want the sauce thinner, you can add more pasta water, but adding pasta water helps the pesto stick to the pasta. Drain the pasta and stir in the sauce.