Man, if there is anything that smells better than fresh pesto, I'd love to know what it is. The recipe, for those who care:
- 1 lg bunch of fresh basil (this is two or three packs if you get the kind Shoppers has), leaves only, no stems
- 4 cloves fresh garlic (don't use the jarred minced kind)
- palmful of pine nuts
- a cup or so of *fresh* grated Parmesan or Asiago (or Romano, or any other Italian hard cheese). Do not use the crap that's already grated for you.
- Olive oil
Put all the garlic cloves and about a third of the basil on your cutting board and chop chop chop until it's fairly coarse but no big hunks.
Add another third of the basil and chop chop chop.
Add the last of the basil and chop chop chop until it's a fine mince. Yes, it's time consuming.
Add half the pine nuts and chop chop chop.
Add the rest of the pine nuts and - you guessed it! Chop chop chop.
Add half the grated cheese and....you know.
Add the rest of the cheese and chop until everything is so finely minced that it's all a big pesto blur and you can press it into a cake.
So press it into that cake and put it in a small dish about the size of the cake (or just press it into the bottom of the dish). Cover it with a couple Tbsps of olive oil.
Voila! Pesto.
Why all the chop, add, chop, add? Because the idea is to have the basil and garlic be extremely fine, but the pine nuts add some texture (just not too much). Why really? I don't know - this is just how it was taught to me.
What do you do with pesto? Well, I'm going to toss it with fresh homemade linguini and eat it. But you can put it in an omelette, or use it in spaghetti sauce, or top a pizza, or toss it with veggies or...anything you think would taste good with basil, garlic, olive oil, and cheese. Which, frankly, is just about everything.
Oven sizzled shrimp, put a blop on your steak, spread it on the bread when you make your next grilled cheese, garlic bread, add it to chickpeas and make hummus if you're some hippie type - really you can do anything with it.
AND! You can leave out the cheese if you're some vegan type, and it's still good.
I could totally have my own Food Network show, don't you think?