Saturday, September 6, 2008

Pesto Sauce

Serves 4-6

This recipe is the best recipe that I have found for making pesto. It takes about 20-25 minutes of solid chopping, but is well worth it. More accurate ingredient quantities are as follows:

  • 2 cups of firmly chopped basil
  • 3 medium cloves of garlic (use 2 if you do not like the taste of raw garlic)
  • scant 1/4 cup of raw pine nuts
  • roughly 3/4 cup parmesan
  • 3-4 T extra virgin olive oil
  • salt to taste
  • reserved pasta-cooking water
A few notes on this recipe.
  • It is NOT necessary to ensure that the ingredients are fully chopped in the first few rounds of chopping. This is especially true when you are chopping the basil.
  • Do not use whole wheat pasta with pesto. Pesto is simply too delicate a flavor and can't stand up to the coarse taste of whole wheat.
  • Fresh pasta is recommended
  • Add freshly chopped tomatoes or sausage
  • You may freeze any pesto you don't use. Make sure you cover it thinly with more olive oil. When defrosting DO NOT microwave.



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