I was so glad that the timing of this recipe worked out to correspond with my first basil harvest of the year. Over the years I have given up growing anything except some herbs. Now, I have basil, rosemary, thyme, Italian parsley, and marjoram. Oh, and I guess you can include nasturtiums. I love to include the blooms in a salad. The last time I grew tomatoes, I had a squirrel pick one and run up to the ledge across from my back door. He then proceeded to look me in the eye while he took the first bite. I couldn’t believe it. If you are going to steal my produce at least have the decency to take it and run. Anyway, I digress.

This is a new take on my normal pesto recipe. I usually use just romano cheese and certainly not any butter. Over the years I have tried just about every permutation that you can imagine. I have tried toasted pine nuts, walnuts, parsley, sundried tomatoes, and arugula. All of these had strong points, but I have to say the mixture of the butter and the ricotta seemed to bring out the flavors of the pesto better than anything else that I have tried. I don’t know if it just coated the pasta strands better or if it just deepened the overall flavor, but I was really impressed with the result. Another winner! I can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Now, I just have to figure out where to find 2 pounds of fish heads here in the city for my next recipe!!