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| Whirr, whirr, done. Talk about no cook. It's done PRESTO! |
If it's mid - late summer, I'm gunning for basil. (If it's earlier, I'm planting it and watering it.) I've got pots full myself, but I also have to hit the farmer's market for more. At a buck for a big bunch, I get arm fulls.
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| My piano teacher and I hit the farmer's market. |
Here it is taking a bath in my kitchen sink with the Japanese eggplant and yellow zucchini I'm cleaning for the
ratatouille I blogged on the Dinner Place blog (The Solo Cook.) They really like to get in the tub together. I loved looking at this gorgeous mix of veg. Could the colors get any better?
What is pesto? Lots of you DO know. But! If you don't:
Take the basil, whirr it in the food processor (traditionally mortar and pestle) with lots of garlic, pine nuts and/or walnuts, olive oil, Parmesan, and you have saucy green love. In Italy, it's pesto. In France, pistou. And it's Presto! (Very quick, indeed, in the language of music) wherever you make it.
When I decided to blog pesto, I almost didn't. Pesto isn't something new. It may be four hundred years old in Europe and it's certainly no culinary upstart in the United States.
The first time I ran across pesto was in the late '70s in THE SILVER PALATE COOKBOOK (by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins with Michael McLaughlin. Workman, 1979; 362p). This was a life-changing cookbook not only for me, but for women everywhere who cooked. If you want to know why, check out the cookbooks that were written and printed before this one. It's so important in my life that I have nearly worn out my paperback copy and, while I still use it, bought a hardback copy for a back-up and for my kids later on.
The more I thought about it, the more I decided to just go ahead and put pesto on my roster of blog posts. How could something I love so much not be here?
I still basically make pesto from that recipe, though I use others, too--the one from
THE GOURMET COOKBOOK (edited by Ruth Reichl and published in 2004 by Houghlin Mifflin) comes to mind. By this time, I've adjusted any and all of them to my own tastes (as should you) and am purely and simply summer-happy whenever it's time to use all that basil.
Pasta with Pesto....the most popular use, I'll guess:
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| Here with 365 (Whole Foods brand) whole wheat pasta |
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Other ways to use pesto:
- on/in an omelet
- as a veggie dip
- on grilled chops
- as a sauce for fish or chicken
- on pizza
- with crackers
- on grilled vegetables
- topping lamb chops
- gracing grilled baguette
- dribbled on sliced tomatoes or sliced tomatoes and sliced mozzerella in place of basil leaves.
Or... well, you go next. How about in a spoon in your mouth-- or mine?
I've got a routine of exercise and cutting back on food so that I subtract 35,000 calories in 8 weeks. (For instance, no meat 2 nights a week.) No fancy-schmancy (as Sandy would say) diet; no gimmicks; no cash or meetings. Just me. My bean-counter head and my family room and the city of Saint Paul as gym. 
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