headkleaner

All right, all of you will claim that you have had pesto.  Chances are what you have tasted is an inferior rendition of the Italian Classic.  There are a couple do’s and don’ts that really make the difference pesto and basil paste. Follow the ingredients, technique and process carefully below and your taste buds will reward you!

Serves 4

Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 cups Fresh all Green Organic basil leaves (the secret here is to take the small to small medium ones)
• 1/4 cups Organic Pine Nuts
• 4 medium cloves Organic Garlic
• 1/2 cup grated Romano (most recipes call for Parmeson but Romano is far superior.  Get good cheese, do not skimp!)
• 1/3  cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon Organic Lemon Juice
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Course Sea Salt (to taste really, I am a firm believer that excessive salt destroys pesto recipes)
• a little ground peppercorn can go a long way to enhancing the flavors

Instructions Chop the pine nuts, then place them in a mortar and grind them till granulated. You do not want a paste so do not overdo it.  Chop the garlic and then take 2/3 of it and press it through a garlic press. The other 1/3 take and finely slice it then chop it into fine pieces.

Now important, take the basil leaves and stack them on top of each other, 5-6 at a time. Roll them up into a roll then finely slice them.  ***Use an extremely sharp blade otherwise the basil edges will brown! Once the basil is sliced start chopping til you have fine pieces (do not put it in a blender, we are after a pile of small leaf bits, not soup!) Grate the Romano finely.

Combine Combine all ingredients that we have prepared thus far in a bowl.  Stir in the Grated Romano into the mixture.  Slowly stir in the olive oil, then stir in the Teaspoon of Organic Lemon juice (key to preserving the chopped basil!)

Serve over pasta al dente, fettucini or linguine. Let your guest mix it!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!