September 18, 2010 / Leslie (LadyMin)

Weekend Cooking: Mezze Penne with Pesto

I recently became aware of Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads. I love to cook, and usually I do so on the weekends because weekdays there just isn’t much time to be creative.

I haven’t read any cooking books lately so I’ll post one of my favorite recipes. Gardening is one of my other hobbies and I have a selection of herbs growing in barrels outside my kitchen door. This time of year the basil is beautiful and just begging to be made into pesto sauce. This is a light and tasty pesto recipe adapted from a few authentic Italian ones that I have tried.

Ingredients

1 small clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
36 basil leaves
1 tablespoon grated pecorino romano cheese
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Half pound of penne pasta

Preparation

Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic, salt and pine nuts. Don’t make a paste, just lightly crush. Using a knife with a sharp blade chop the basil and add to the mortar. Gradually add the cheese. Transfer to a mini food processor and add the oil. Pulse several time to mix the ingredients. Cook pasta to taste, drain and add pesto.

Makes 4 servings.

Tips and suggestions:

Use the basil leaves only, no stems; the younger the basil the better. Freshly picked basil is ideal. I have successfully frozen fresh basil in oil and it tastes fine used in this recipe; far better than the sad fresh basil available in the supermarket.

To toast pine nuts, use a small, dry pan. Put the heat on low and shake often for 3-5 minutes. You’ll notice a change in color when they are toasted. Careful, they burn easily. I’ve had to throw away (expensive) burned pine nuts a few times because I got distracted and they turned black.

Freshly grate the cheese rather than using the packaged pre-grated type. If you don’t like romano cheese you can use 2 tablespoons of parmesan, but the pecorino romano is what gives it a distinctive taste.

It is best to use a mortar and pestle. This prevents the ingredients from blending into one and becoming a paste. Tiny pieces of basil should separate and float in the oil (click on thumbnail pic to see how it should look).

(This recipe was originally posted on my gardening blog, LadyMin’s Garden.)