Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Dinner Tonight: Pesto without a Food Processor


I got this recipe from 101cookbooks.com*
I love it because I don't have a food processor-only a knife and my dreams. Actually the knife is my roommate's...

1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
3 medium cloves of garlic
one small handful of raw pine nuts
roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED
A few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
Special equipment: large mezzaluna for chopping
Start chopping the garlic along with about 1/3 of the basil leaves. Once this is loosely chopped add more basil, chop some more, add the rest of the basil, chop some more. I scrape and chop, gather and chop. At this point the basil and garlic should be a very fine mince. Add about half the pine nuts, chop. Add the rest of the pine nuts, chop. Add half of the Parmesan, chop. Add the rest of the Parmesan, and chop. In the end you want a chop so fine that you can press all the ingredients into a basil "cake" - see the photo up above. Transfer the pesto "cake" to a small bowl (not much bigger than the cake). Cover with a bit of olive oil, it doesn't take much, just a few tablespoons

They suggest using a mezzaluna instead of a knife, but I don't have one-like most college students-so I use what's available.


*http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001570.html

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