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PEST of a PESTO… but then onto PASTA! ‘PUTTING UP’!!

“How could such sweet and wholesome hours
Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers?”
Andrew Marvel

Basil Almond Pesto…

Snip,snip,snip…all I could hear out in the garden was snip, snip, snip. Sunday morning, me lazing in the study with my cuppa cold milk…one day I like to steer clear of the kitchen in the morning. The snipping didn’t seem to end & I got suspicious. Stepped out to find the gardener trimming away my beloved basil bushes to pretty shapes…I almost passed out! There, lying all around, were bunches of my precious basil! He felt it had overgrown too much & decided it was time to clean it up; for him it was just another part of the overgrown hedge!Leaves galore…

Grrrrrrrrrr…& that’s how Sunday morning began. I made him bag the leaves & then got them in & set to work. In temperatures as high as we have here, leaves wilt in next to no time. The only good thing was that I was coerced into doing something I had been procrastinating about for far too long…I had finished my last jar a while ago.
Convenience reigns supreme; if the pesto is on hand,
then can pasta be far behind?
Ingredients:

Sweet basil - 2 cups approximately
Almonds - 1/2 cup , with skins
Garlic - 4-5 cloves
Olive oil - 1/2 cup
Freshly ground pepper

Leafing through pesto…

Method:
  • Grind the almonds with skins in the food processor in short pulses.
  • Add the garlic, pulse. Add the basil leaves & pulse again till they are all shredded well.
  • Now continue to pulse while slowly pouring in the olive oil till it comes together. Add some freshly ground pepper, mix well & bottle. Refrigerate. Makes 2 small jars.

And then came the pasta in a pesto cream sauce…
Ingredients:

Fussili - 250 gms
Garlic - 3 cloves
Cream - 200ml
Cheese - 50 gms / grated
Pesto - 2 heaped tbsps
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Method:
  • Boil the pasta until al dente.
  • Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan. Ad the garlic & saute for a minute or so. Add the cream + cheese & simmer till it comes to a boil & the cheese melts.
  • Add the pesto + salt + pepper to taste.
  • Once the pasta is done, add to the pesto cream sauce & mix through. Serve with fresh grated Parmesan shavings.
  • I served this with a tomato-cottage cheese-basil salad, grilled chicken & oven roasted garlic potatoes.

The chicken was marinated in a lovely flavoursome marinade I got off from Amy @ Familia Bencomo…’Marinata Diavola‘; I didn’t have the rosemary but made it nevertheless. Fabulous fabulous results! Do head over to her place & check out the original HERE!!

My jar of pesto, virtually, is on it’s way to PUTTING UP, an interesting blogevent hosted jointly by Pixie @ You Say Tomahto, I Say Tomayto, & Rosie @ Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake. They are 2 of my favourite UK bloggers & are very busy in their spot of the globe! Rosie was one of the first bloggers I got to know when I began blogging, & she’s gone from strength to strength since! The focus of this event are the Jams & Preserves. I checked with Pixie, & she confirmed that pesto qualifies. Thanks Arundhati for your suggestion…I’m on my way!!

Posted by Passionate baker & beyond.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 7:32 am and is filed under Basil, Blog Event, Chicken, Italian, herbs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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