Eric and I made pesto this weekend while Yoli sat on the sofa reading a book. We harvested two bags full of pesto that was starting to flower from the community garden. I left enough lower leaves and stems that the plants should send up a new burst of growth within the next couple of weeks. I cleaned the pesto and removed the leaves and small stems from the larger, tougher stems while Eric made the pesto. My thumbnails are still stained from using them to cut the basil stems.
To make the pesto, we stuffed a food processor bowl with basil and added about a tablespoon of salt, 1 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of walnuts (because the one store in their town didn't have pine nuts), 2 tablespoons of minced fresh garlic, and 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt. These measurements are approximations because we eyeballed the amounts of ingredients that we added. We processed the ingredients on high until they were fairly smooth. We spooned the pesto into 1 cup containers and froze all of them except for what we ate over the weekend. We made a gallon and a half of pesto. Stupidly, I left mine at Yoli's house and will have to pick them up next time I visit her. This weekend, we made crostini and roasted potatoes with the pesto.
Yum! i've been meaning to whip up a batch of pesto too--thanks for the reminder! There are no pine nuts where we live so i often use almonds, thinking about trying cashews this time. saludos,
ReplyDeleteLiz
Hi Katie, we made pesto this weekend, too, but nowhere near the amount you made! The approximate measurements of ingredients you gave were for each batch, not for the whole gallon and a half, right? That's a LOT of olive oil (and cheese and nuts and garlic and...).
ReplyDeleteI gave up on trimming basil with my fingers and resorted to using a pair of kitchen scissors to avoid green fingers.
Liz - I used walnuts and almonds to make my pesto last weekend. Let me know how yours turns out with cashews, that sounds delicious, too.
I made pesto this week with walnuts too - there are pine nuts here but they are crazy expensive - what's up?!
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