A pint of pesto!

This recipe can be made in a standard size food processor and makes about 2 cups. Here is my adaption of Marcella Hazan’s from her cookbook, The Classical Italian Cookbook. The food/travel author, Fred Plotkin, also influenced my recipe.

Lightly wipe the basil leaves with a damp paper towel to clean. Basil does not like to be wet and will brown quickly. Wet basil also makes a brown tinged pesto.

I prefer the traditional green leaf basil. It makes a nice bright green pesto. The purple basil produces a darker brown-green pesto.

Another option is to omit the cheese and pine nuts and make a BASIL SAUCE which is delicious to serve with vegetables, meats, eggs, cheese ….. Also you can add it to soups and tomato sauces for extra flavor.

I’ve used varying amounts of basil leaves making this recipe. Measuring 4 cups of packed basil leaves is subjective. If your sauce ends up too thick you can thin it out with some pasta water (try adding 1 tablespoon of pasta water at a time to the portion of pesto you’re using)

Ingredients

4 cups packed basil leaves

1 cup olive oil

1 clove garlic, lightly crushed with a heavy knife handle and peeled. There should not be a strong garlic flavor in the pesto. So don’t use a huge clove!

1/2-1 teaspoons Kosher salt: The cheeses are salty. You may want to hold off on the salt. Then taste the pesto and add it at the end to avoid over salting it.

4 tablespoons pine nuts, chopped as coarse or fine as you like; I prefer a coarse size

1 cup finely grated pecorino romano cheese

1/4 cup finely grated parmesan reggiano cheese (or any combination of the romano and parmesan reggiano cheese. Another traditional mix is 1 1/4 cups parmesan reggiano with possibly a tiny bit of Romano cheese.

Directions

• In the bowl of a food processor with a knife blade place basil, garlic, and olive oil. Process till leaves are tiny and a blended sauce.
• Pour the sauce into a large bowl and stir in the cheeses and pine nuts. Taste and then add salt as you like. It should not be too salty.
• Freeze pesto in ice cube trays and when frozen, place in a freezer carton or bag for storage in the freezer. You can also store the pesto in a jar in the refrigerator by keeping a layer of olive oil on the surface and covering it with a lid.
• Presto! Serve your pesto with pasta which is the original recipe. Use it as a spread or drizzle on tomatoes and fresh mozzarella or sandwiches and bruschetta or on pizza instead of tomato sauce! Pesto can also be used as a flavoring to soups, sauces and stews….or as a marinade for chicken.

Voila!