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Basil Pesto

Basil stalks have been used by Coptic Priests to apply holy water in blessing ceremonies.

Basil is an herbal plant that originates from Southeast Asian. It has been cultivated widely throughout the world and eventually found it's way to Italy. Basil was known to the Romans and is mentioned by Pliny the Elder in Rome around 40CE. At that time Romans knew that basil was both yummy and medicinal. They would crush the leaves and pack them next to sore gums. I checked it out and this remedy does work, basil has a very mild anesthetic effect on the gums. At some point in the 19th Century the fine citizens of Genoa, Italy made a basil paste that has come to be known as Basil Pesto.

Tricks

Basil does not last long in the fridge--it's a tropical plant that loves light and heat--your cold dark fridge will kill it quick. When you get your basil home from the store put it in a glass of water and stick it on a warm windowsill. Direct, intense sunlight will wilt it in a hurry so be careful where you put it. If you are lucky your basil will start to produce roots while it's on your windowsill. If it does, plant it, and you can grow your own.

Making pesto is pretty easy if you have a Cuisinart. The whole idea is just to mash up the ingredients into a paste. If you don't have a Cuisinart don't worry you can still make pesto. The traditional way to make pesto is to use a mortis and pestle--the manual way to mash stuff into a paste.

Ingredients

Conversions to European measurements can be found here!

For about one and a half cups

1 or 2 large peeled garlic clove
4-8 tablespoons olive oil
1 large bunch fresh basil (about 4 cups)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4-1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Procedure

Begin by toasting the pine nuts. This is actually trickier than you might think. Pine nuts seem to go from golden toasty to burnt mess in about half a second. My method these days is to use the toaster oven and put the pine nuts in a single layer on a tray. I put them in exactly like I am making toast. It seems the same amount of time to create golden brown toast works for pine nuts.

I generally grate the Parmesan cheese first, in the Cuisinart, then take it out and chuck in the garlic cloves. The recipe does call for raw garlic so be careful how many cloves you add. Generally, I like one big clove or two cloves if they are small. But, feel free to add as many as you like. Next, I cram in all the basil with the olive oil and let it get whizzed up for 30 seconds to a minute. Then drop in the pine nuts. Depending on how wet the basil is and how dry the nuts are you might need to add more olive oil. You can be pretty liberal with the olive oil as it is a foundational taste to the final product and it should help to balance all the flavors. Last in is the Parmesan cheese. Add the cheese slowly because it will suck up all the available moisture and you will end up adding way too much olive oil to keep the consistency right. When Basil Pesto is used in a dish it will, basically, melt. If you have too much olive oil in your pesto your final product will be overly oily.