2012 Cooking Club Week 27: Pesto

Newaglish

Ok so I'm going on holiday today so unfortunately I don't have time for anything elaborate! Just going to throw up the recipe that I always use for pesto which is really straight forward but makes an amazing pesto sauce. We grow basil at home so I usually pick it all, make jars and jars of pesto and give it to people. This stuff tastes fantastic and is way better than what you would buy in a shop; I've actually seen people sit down and eat an entire jar of this stuff with a spoon in one sitting. It tastes really fresh and is a great ingredient for meals or a handy thing to pull together as a spread/condiment to include on your table at a dinner party. The recipe I use is from Delia Smith. I usually make about three or four times what this recipe calls for, mainly because it can be difficult to blend small amounts of basil if you're not using a hand held blender!

Ingredients:
2 oz (50 g) fresh basil leaves
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 level tablespoon pine nuts
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 oz (25 g) Pecorino Romano, grated
salt

Method:
If you have a blender, put the basil, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil together with some salt in the goblet and blend until you have a smooth purée. Then transfer the purée to a bowl and stir in the grated Pecorino cheese.

If you don't have a blender, use a large pestle and mortar to pound the basil, garlic and pine nuts to a paste. Slowly add the salt and cheese, then very gradually add the oil until you have obtained a smooth purée.

It's a shame I couldn't do anything more complicated but if anyone has any pesto variations (sundried tomato, red pepper, rocket, etc.) maybe you could post those here and we could get a selection of recipes going!

Also if you have leftover pine nuts after making the pesto, don't eat them! You will end up with a terrible dose of pine mouth.

Mrs Fox

I've always though it was a case of one bad pine nut that's causing the horrible aftertaste in my mouth.

Honey-ec

Newaglish wrote: »

Also if you have leftover pine nuts after making the pesto, don't eat them! You will end up with a terrible dose of pine mouth.

Only if they were rancid to begin with, in which case you wouldn't be using them to make pesto in the first place.

Little Alex

Just made this as the dressing for salad this evening. Very nice, thank you!



For cheese I used Gran Moravia, which is an Italian hard cheese, but made with veggie-friendly rennet.

BigBadRob83

Newaglish wrote: »

It's a shame I couldn't do anything more complicated but if anyone has any pesto variations (sundried tomato, red pepper, rocket, etc.) maybe you could post those here and we could get a selection of recipes going!

Small variation I use on this:
Toast the pine nuts in advance of putting them in the blender
1/2 quantity of basil leaves
other 1/2 as rocket

Process is the same, then at the end salt & pepper (and I like a dash of lime juice) to your own taste

John Mason

had this today with some fresh pasta.

delish - will definitely use again

unkel

I use walnuts instead of pine nuts most of the time. Easier to get and a lot cheaper.

Really doesn't change the taste much at all, especially if one uses a bit more garlic than most recipes call for