Eliana is a pasta loving fool just like her Mommy. If I allowed
it, she’d blissfully eat pasta for
three meals plus one snack each and every day. (And really, so would I!) Obviously, I don’t serve her
pasta all day every day. But I know that when pasta is served, it will be
gobbled up with no questions asked. What I didn’t expect was to feed her a third
serving of pasta for dinner tonight!
Now that fall is
setting in and the weather is cooler, I decided I should use the remaining
basil from our garden sooner rather than later. To me a big bunch of basil
means one thing: it’s time for pesto. Yum! The recipe I used is below.
Pesto Sauce
· Fresh basil
· Pine nuts, toasted (I used walnuts in this batch. See the explanation
below.)
· Garlic clove(s), peeled
· Shredded or grated Parmesan cheese
· Olive oil, salt and pepper
· Reserved cooking liquid from the pasta
**There are no amounts
listed on this recipe because it all depends on the amount of basil I use. I
like a lot of basil. For all ingredients except the Parmesan, I start by adding
smaller amounts and work my way up because it is easier to add more of anything
to the food processor than to take away.**
Toast the pine nuts
over low heat for a few minutes until they are browned and fragrant. All
ingredients go into the food processor. Puree. Taste and adjust levels as
needed.
If I’m putting this over
pasta, I reserve a mugful of the cooking liquid, drain the pasta and add it
back into the pot. I add the pesto, which is kind of a paste consistency, and
begin adding the reserved cooking liquid from the pasta. I mix it all up and
add more water as needed to help thin out the pesto and avoid adding a lot more
oil.
Variations:
- Add organic
baby spinach as well as basil
- Add fresh
lemon or lime juice to brighten up the flavors
- Substitute the
pine nuts with toasted walnuts (I just discovered this by accident. When I
opened up the freezer to grab the pine nuts, there were none. Gasp! But, there
were walnuts, so toasted walnuts went into this current batch of pesto.)
I used gobbetti-shaped pasta for this batch and served it with fresh grape tomatoes that were quartered.
Now this pasta shape looks fun! |
Happy Cooking!
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