feb 5: thai basil pesto
I love to cook. I grew up cooking nearly every single day of my early childhood. So it’s weird (to me) that I’ve never made pesto from scratch before. I decied it was time, following Deborah Madison’s recipe, tweaking along the way.
Ingredients: pine nuts, garlic, sea salt, thai basil, parmesan, oregano, extra virgin olive oil. (Did you realize most pesto you buy at the store is made with cashews, sunflower oil, has green food colouring, and often doesn’t actually have any real cheese in it? Eew!)
I served it (to myself) on whole wheat rotini, accompanied by a sweet garlic sausage made with local award-winning organic meat. I was struck by how rich the flavours were, especially how sweet the basil and sausage were together. Delicious! And altogether unexpectedly good.
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Hi! After taking one look at a the label on storebought pesto I have made it myself ever since. Have tried many variations and can recommend making it with rocket or koriander (not sure wether that is the proper English name, but it’s an Asian herb) or parsley. I sometimes vary the nuts or cheese too. I like the koriander with cashewnuts and the parsley with walnuts. Have tried several kinds of cheese my Italian supermarket sells, but the parmesan is still my favourite. My variations may not technically be original pesto, but they’re definitely yummy…