Jon Pilat

Pesto by the pound

This summer, Ryan and I planted an herb garden. Some basil, parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary, cilantro and mint. It was a smashing success. Such a success that the cilantro briefly soared upwards of three feet tall, and we had a waist high thicket of basil. Which is wonderful--except that it's starting to get cold, and the basil's starting to look a little long in the tooth. Not terrible, but it seemed like harvesting might be the better part of valor. I pulled about a third of the basil, which was enough to completely fill a standard plastic grocery bag (not the kind in the produce section; the kind they give you at checkout). I made an octuple recipe of this pesto:

2 cups packed fresh basil
1/4 cup other herbs (mint, flat leaf parsley, oregano, etc...)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts (toasted if you're feeling ambitious...I wasn't)
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (grate your own)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
generous pinch of salt

put ingrediants in food processor. whizz.

This ended up putting me most of the way through a costco sized block of parmesan (though not parmesiano reggiano, as I'm cheap), and a 750 ml. bottle of extra virgin olive oil. Mario keeps telling me I should be using more expensive oil. At this rate, I'll have used my current stock before christmas.

I'm now the proud owner of half a gallon of pesto.

Speaking of matters foodie, has anybody else noticed that some of the background music on SSX3, my current video game addiction, was also featured in the Naked Chef, starring Jamie Oliver. I'm flying down a virutal mountain, and catch myself thinking of lime zest. Look, it's not my fault he has a citrus fetish.

Posted by jonpilat at November 17, 2003 12:58 AM