Now that basil is fresh and plentiful, it is time to make pesto.
Blend in a food processor:
Fresh basil leaves
Toasted pine nuts
Parmesan cheese - the good stuff
Minced fresh garlic
Chicken stock - add at end to get pesto to desired consistency
(Most people use olive oil instead of chicken stock. My pesto tastes just as good and is lower fat.)
I freeze pesto in ice cube trays. Then I put frozen cubes in several little baggies so I can defrost just as much as I need at any one time.
Bon appetit!
PROFNOT!!! You are killing that pesto with the chicken stock!!!
[just playing the stereotype Italian lady here
]
Being Italian, I cannot understand the chicken stock to replace the olive oile... you don't need that much, but you *need* some olive oil in it! I should send you over some freshly pressed virgin olive oil so you could taste the difference...
[BTW, just kidding, not really ranting here. It is interesting for me to see how Italian recipes are made differently around the world.]
This is the recipe I use for pesto myself (for 4 portions):
60g fresh basil
1 spoonful of grated "pecorino" cheese (aged sheep cheese)
1 spoonful of grated parmesan (the good stuff, not that processed EWWW thing you find in some supermarkets)
20g of pine nuts (never toasted them, to be honest)
2 cloves of garlic
14 spoonfuls of extra virgin olive oil
salt
Real pesto should be processed by hand, in a mortar: traditionalists say that the blender destroys the taste of the ingredients. I have to say that I'm lazy and never done this by hand, so I cannot tell you the difference.
It is true that there is a lot of oil, but remember that olive oil is considered one of the less harmful fats to cook with (mediterranean diet is quite rich of olive oil, but usually people around here do not have a high level of blood cholesterol).
Besides, if you want to eat less pasta so to make this dish lighter, another Italian recipe suggests to substitute part of the pasta (cook 60 grams for person instead of 80 grams, which is the standard dose for 1 person) with string beans (or French beans, don't know how you call them, the green and long ones cfr.
http://images.google.it/images?hl=it&q=string+bean&btnG=Cerca+immagini&gbv=2) and potatoes. For 4 boil 50g of string beans and 150g of potatoes in pieces, then put them aside and boil the pasta in the same water. When the pasta is ready ("al dente", as we like it, not overcooked) mix the veggies and the pasta together and then pur the pesto on the top. Very tasty!
