mmmmmm, my basil plant was gloriously full of fragrant leaves, I scored pine nuts on sale and a small wedge of real Parmisiano Reggiano, it is most definitely pesto time! My food processor is packed away in storage, so I was going to make pesto by hand chopping, but I wasn't thrilled with the texture the last time I tried hand chopping. Luckily, I stumbled across a post here:
whocookedwhat.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-make-pesto-all-time-and-it-is-so-easy.html where an immersion blender was used in place of a food processor. This worked so much better than hand chopping- and I can't imagine a food processor making it any better. I can't give a true recipe here, I didn't (and usually don't) measure ingredients for pesto. Also, I didn't add garlic, I just didn't have any on hand. So here is the process I followed:
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| warm fuzzies! |
I didn't wash the basil because I grew it with no pesticides, so I just picked all of the lovely leaves. My hands and kitchen smelled divine!
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| toasty! |
toast some pine nuts- I used about 2 1/2 oz because I had a lot of basil, probably 5 full cups of packed leaves
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| mmmm, parmisiano! |
let the pine nuts cool and grate some good parmigiana reggiano, at least 1/2 cup. Once the pine nuts are cool, place a small handful of basil in a mixing bowl, add about a tablespoon of pine nuts, a good pinch of parmigiana and a drizzle of olive oil. Use your immersion blender to squish and blend the ingredients. It is a little difficult in the beginning, but will get easier as you add more stuff. Just keep adding a bit of each ingredient and blend/squish. The first handful or two got mushed up and kind of stuck in the 'vents' of the blender, if this happens just add a bit (light drizzle) of olive oil. By adding ingredients a handful at a time, some of the basil and pine nuts get completely pulverized into paste, but the latter ingredients get chopped a bit less, leaving you with (imho) perfectly textured pesto. Not chunky, that would not be right, but not a smooth paste either.
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| ready for the beauty shot! |
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Place in a bowl, a final dusting of cheese and drizzle of olive oil and ...."Oh Interwebs, when will you invent smell-o-vision links"?!
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| someone hand me a breadstick, stat! |
