Saturday’s visit to the Davis Farmers’ Market yielded some of the most beautiful fresh basil I have ever seen. The sweet, fragrant leaves were calling to me, “take me with you … I’ll make you the best pesto ever!” At only $2 for a large bunch, I gave in.
I haven’t made pesto in a few years, so I was a little nervous that I’d forgotten my recipe and technique, but it came out beautifully!
The finished pesto
Pesto
3 cloves fresh garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup pine nuts
5 ounce tub of Trader Joe’s Freshly Shaved Parmesan, Romano, & Asiago Cheese Blend
1 large bunch fresh basil
3/4 cup really good extra virgin olive oil
Wash the basil in cool water. Snip the leaves off the stems; you want to use only the leaves -no stems, no flowers. It’s best, also, to use basil that has not yet started to flower or go to seed; this can make it bitter. Gently spin the leaves in a salad spinner to get most of the water off. Transfer to towels to gently blot and let drain. You want to dry the leaves as best as you can, being careful to not bruise them in the process.
While the leaves are draining, lightly toast the pine nuts. You can do this in a pan on the stove, or in the oven. Watch them carefully as pine nuts scorch very easily. I usually go by smell to judge when they’re done. You’ll know. Let them cool completely before making the pesto.
Garlic, Pine Nuts, Cheese
Peel the garlic and place it in the bowl of a food processor. Add the salt and pulse a few times to roughly chop. Add the pine nuts and cheese and pulse a few times to roughly chop.
Add about half of the basil leaves & pulse just a bit to reduce volume so all leaves will fit in food processor bowl; drizzle in a little of the olive oil and process briefly. Add remaining leaves, process, and drizzle remaining olive oil in to desired consistency.
Taste the sauce and add a little more salt, if necessary.
This sauce freezes well. Pack it into small containers, drizzle a little olive oil on top, and lay a little plastic wrap over the top. This will help to prevent the top from turning dark. You can also freeze it in ice cube trays (just be sure to dedicate a tray to pesto … unless you enjoy pesto flavored ice cubes!)
More recipes and ideas to be posted later. WordPress is starting to act up and I just don’t have time to fuss with it right now.
This worked GREAT for the pesto - and it was a lot less expensive than the Parmigiano-Reggiano.
This entry was posted
on Monday, August 6th, 2012 at 12:43 am and is filed under Sauces.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Follow
November 11th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
[…] the pesto I made back in August? (See: http://cyclingfoodie.com/2012/08/pesto-ala-cycling-foodie/) This is the booth where I got the basil. Towani Organic Farm owner Guy Baldwin and his team really […]
February 4th, 2014 at 4:28 am
[…] stock 3 to 4-inch long piece of Parmesan rind 12 ounces of whole grain shell pasta 4 ounces of Pesto Alla Cycling Foodie 1 can Cannellini beans, well rinsed fresh herbs – basil, thyme, parsley Trimming the […]