Hey Pesto!

Pesto is so simple to make and yet so tasty if you have good quality ingredients. I was at a friends place recently and she made a delicious pasta dish with the best tasting pesto I have ever had. When I asked her where I could get my hands on some of this pesto she told me that she had bought it at an organic market when she was on holidays in Berry.

That was enough to get me thinking about making my own pesto. I tried a few different versions over the weekend. There was the one with no cheese in it that tasted a little too salty, the one with olive oil that had been infused with onion and chilli and the one with extra pine nuts. Then I ran out of basil. They all tasted good (and thank god they can be frozen). I think the difference between my attempts and the one from the organic market was that they used the good old traditional pestle & mortar method so that there was still a bit of a bite to the basil leafs. My food processor is a little too powerful and basically zaps the basil to a pulp. Once I get my hands on some more organic basil I’ll be trying the old fashioned method. I am keen to try making pesto with toasted pine nuts for some added depth to the flavour. I think some olive oil infused with garlic will add more taste without the need for crunchy garlic bits.

For now I can give you the basic recipe that you can tweak to your own personal taste.
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, finely minced

Last night we had this pesto with some garlic prawns and spiral pasta. The whole meal took me 12 minutes to make. This was the perfect meal to have in a bowl curled up on the coach watching the latest episode of Agatha Christie after a very busy weekend.