yum, pesto!

[chiver78]

I made up a florist sleeve's worth of basil/pine-nut pesto tonight. yum!

does anyone else make their own pesto? what kind do you make, and please share your recipe.

ETA: boo....my drool-y guy got zapped.

[verrip1]

I make the kind you do. With garlic, of course, and I roast the pinoles first.

I've seen mexican style and mideast style pestos made on the cooking shows.

[chiver78]

ooh...which shows? I've got the food network bookmarked, but haven't really poked around for pesto. I'm not a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes, which is another popular pesto variety.

I had garlic (a lot, actually) in my pesto tonight. garlic, fresh grated parmesan cheese, a light olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. I made some pasta tonight for dinner - tossed with some of the pesto, and chunks of the rotisserie chicken I picked up so I could make some stock. very yummy. I've got enough to have some very nice sandwiches all week. :-)

[TD2K]

I cheat, I get mine from Costco and then divy it up into servings and freeze it.

[verrip1]

chive: I saw the mexican pesto made on Rick Bayliss' show.

Don't recall where I saw the mideast one. It had cilantro, mint, a lot of onion, coriander powder and you know, mideast stuff! (IOW, I forget )

[Cookies Galore]

I love the tomato and almond pesto from Cook's Illustrated. I saw it on America's Test Kitchen, best show ever!

[chiver78]

TD - I've tried mass-produced pesto before, I just can't do it. my sis, who cooks as much, and as from-scratch as I do, swears by Classico's jarred basil/pine-nut pesto as one of her comfort foods. the night before an early road trip up to NB we did ravioli with that jarred crap. but I didn't have to worry about fresh stuff going bad. I swear by a lipton rice side - chicken/broccoli with an additional chopped broccoli crown and a can of chicken stirred in - as one of my own lazy comfort foods, so I can't say much. if it works for you, great!

[chiver78]

verrip and meghan, thanks. I'll look these up.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I still have a couple of batches of pesto in the freezer that I made last summer when my basil grew like crazy. I tend to put a lot more garlic in mine, and if you put a layer of olive oil on the top of the pesto, it'll keep it from getting brown. I also heard/read that if you blanch the basil before making pesto, the basil will stay green as well.

I also toast the pine nuts, but I've burnt more than one batch.

[chiver78]

ooh - I never thought to blanch the basil. that's a great idea, thanks!

[Tennesseer]

Nothing to add other than pesto over pasta is the best.

I also like a simple pasta sauce of lightly sauted garlic (lots of it) in olive oil over pasta.