Pesto, Please!

Part two of Spring Break out the Fat Pants is still in progress, but I’ve had multiple requests for pesto instead – both the dish and the recipe.  Fortunately, I also have a glut of basil and Italian parsley in my Aerogarden (yes, I still LOVE that thing!), so pesto pasta is what’s for dinner tonight and my besto pesto recipe is what’s for blog today.

Photo by Susan Wenzel

I'll be serving the pesto over Trader Joe’s fusilli pasta (I like how the sauce clings to the spirals of the pasta shape, and the flavor and texture of TJ’s fusilli is the best, bar none).  I also plan to toss in chunks of leftover Easter ham.  Yum!  

Pesto is equally delicious with pasta and peas (or just peas or just pasta), stuffed in chicken breasts, or on bread, pizza, shrimp…ok, ok, it’s good on nearly everything (but ice cream).  Pesto is as wonderfully versatile as it is exquisitely fragrant and gorgeously green. 

Here’s the how-to:

A Good Cooker’s Besto Pesto

Ingredients:

2c fresh basil leaves (packed)

1/4c fresh flat leaf Italian parsley (packed)

3 cloves garlic

1/4c pine nuts

1/2-1t salt (more or less to taste)

1/2c good extra-virgin olive oil (I like Filippo Berio)

1/4c grated parmesan (or Romano or Asiago or any combo of the three)

Instructions:

-Toast pine nuts in a non-stick skillet over med-high heat until golden brown, oily looking, and fragrant (3-4 minutes).  Remove from pan and set aside to cool.

-Blanch garlic cloves in boiling water for one minute (or put them in 1/2c water and microwave for 1 minute).  Set aside to cool.

-Place first five ingredients into food processor and pulse until chopped.
-Turn on food processor, drizzle in olive oil, process until smooth scraping sides of work bowl as necessary. 

-Add grated cheese and pulse four or five quick bursts just to combine.

-Use as desired.

Photo by Susan Wenzel

Ham and Pesto Pasta: Cook 1lb fusilli as per package directions and chunk up twelve ounces of ham into 1/2” cubes.  Drain pasta, reserving 1c pasta water.  Place cooked pasta, ham chunks, and 1/4c pasta water back in cooking pan over medium-low heat.  Add desired amount of pesto (I use it all!) and quickly stir to combine.  Add additional water to achieve desired sauce thickness.  Cook no longer than 2-3 minutes more after combining pesto and pasta to preserve flavors.  Adjust salt at this time if necessary.  Serve immediately topped with an extra sprinkle of cheese if desired.  Makes 4 hearty servings or four modest servings plus one lunch-sized bowl for the next day. 

Photo by Susan Wenzel

Note: Unused portions of pesto may be frozen for up to six months – not that it ever lasts that long in my house – actually it never seems to make it to the freezer.  I usually use the whole batch in one meal, as my kids adore pesto.  When I do freeze it, I place desired portions in a square of plastic wrap and twist-tie shut.  (I use the same method to freeze leftover tomato paste in 1-2T portions or 1/4c measures of bacon grease for cornbread).

In all fairness...

The homemade pasta sauce was amazing. It did, however, make WAY MORE than “enough to sauce more than a pound of pasta,” but no one here was complaining - they all loved it. I packed spaghetti in the kids’ lunches the next day, and they finished off the leftovers another time for snack. To make the recipe sweet enough for the tastes around here, I ended up using 1T of raw sugar (a little more than the recipe notes – or maybe not because raw sugar has larger granules and is probably roughly equivalent to 2t of white sugar), and I puréed the sauce in my new chrome KitchenAid blender because I was afraid it was too much (volume wise) for the food processor (yes, yes…I could have done it in two batches). Other than that, I followed the recipe to the letter.

Sidebar: One of my cousins wrote that she always makes and cans (jars!) her own sauce from her own, homegrown veggies and herbs. This is my goal for the spring/summer – to have a huge garden at this new house with its corresponding acreage. And a greenhouse. Oh, and some chickens. Fressssh eggs rule!

The only drawback to the recipe was how long it took to make. I know in the grand scheme of pasta sauces, one hour is a mere moment, but spaghetti has always been a quick, cop out meal for me. Boil the water…crack open a jar…throw in a few frozen turkey meatballs (thank goodeness I DON’T have an old Italian grandma – she’d probably bop me on the head with her ladle). I am not alone in this, as I heard the same thing from a few others. Fortunately, Cook’s Illustrated also extensively taste-tested jar sauces, so I thought I’d share a few.

In the January 2008 edition, tasters tested nine popular brands and this is what they found:

~Bertolli Tomato and Basil Sauce was noted as the best because it, “tasted the most like fresh-cooked tomatoes.”
~Next came Francesco Rinaldi Traditional Marinara (“thick consistency and good texture”) and Prego Marinara Italian Sauce because it did not have “that fake herb flavor.”
~Also recommended were Barilla Marinara Sauce, Newman's Own Marinara, and Muir Glen Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce.
~Highly NOT recommended was Ragú. “Ragú” is an Italian term (derived from the French word “ragoûter” meaning "to revive the taste”) for a meat-based sauce traditionally served with pasta. Ironically, this one was deemed very yucky. (my word – not theirs.)  I guess they missed the bus on that one.

As a note, I always use jar pasta sauce (usually Bertolli or Prego) when I make pizza.  It works very well on my homemade (or on ready-to-stretch dough in wheat or white from Trader Joes) crust topped with cheese and any array of miscellaneous toppings.

So, mash your own 'maters or some from a can or even pop a jar in a pinch - all have a healthy does of lycopene (an antioxidant thought by some to prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis) as well as tons of Vitamin A and Vitamin C.  I'm certain any old Italian Grandma would approve of that!