Pesto sauce is a traditional Italian paste made from
the leaves of fresh Basil. Nowadays of course you can
find all kinds and varieties of "Pesto's" or
pastes. These pastes can act as sauces themselves or be
added to other sauces, soups, casseroles or even used
a s a simple topping for toast A.K.A."crostini"
Yield: 1 ½ Cups
Ingredients:
3 cloves peeled garlic
2 c. packed fresh basil leaves
¼ c. pine nuts
¼ c. parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 t. salt
Pinch pepper
½ c. extra virgin olive oil
Instructions:
Place garlic, pine nuts, salt, and pepper in the bowl
of a food processor. Pulse until smooth; add some of the
olive oil as you pulse. Place the basil leaves and pulse
to chop. Run the food processor and drizzle in the rest
of the olive oil until you have achieved a loose paste.
It should be tight but not dry. Add the parmesan and pulse
to incorporate. Transfer to a storage container and cover
with a thin coat of olive oil to keep the top from turning
brown. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Note On Pesto: Pesto is best used almost immediately
upon making. The color of pesto will be bright green at
first but will generally disintegrate quickly and turn
brown. This is why it is important to keep the entire
pesto submerged under a thin layer of extra virgin olive
oil for immediate cold storage. . Many times as you harvest
basil at its peak there will be so much that it cannot
all be used. In the Italian restaurant where I worked
in the summers on Long Island such would be the case.
We would simply spend several hours to carefully clean
all the leaves, then we would prepare the pesto as above
and place in to small pint size containers to freeze.
Each fresh Pesto pint would be topped with the thin layer
of oil and then the container would be topped and frozen
for use in the winter when basil was either scarce or
very expensive. If you are making a smaller amount but
can still not use it all freeze the pesto in zip lock
bags in the amount you will need to use each time you
need it.
