Pesto~ by the motar method
Don’t y’all just love it when timing is just perfect? It doesn’t happen often in life.
This week’s recipe from ‘Essentials of Italian Cooking’ came at the perfect time. I was in Montisi with a garden FULL of fresh Italian basil, cooking in a Tuscan kitchen and my ‘chore’ was to make Pesto, by the Motar Method.
Perfetto!
Marcella has a beautiful page in her cookbook on the true origins of pesto, and the art of creating pesto by using a mortar with a pestle. If you have ever had truly fresh, perfectly prepared pesto on fresh pasta… It will make your heart sing. This is not the pesto-boyRdee, or even what they make in the authentic Olive Gardens across the country. We are talking honest-to-goodness-hallelujah-chorus flavors.
Start with 2 generous cups of fresh basil, that have been rinsed in cold water and dried. Combine in a mortar with sea salt, pine nuts, and mashed garlic. Using the pestle, mash against the sides until a thick paste if formed. (stop here and just take a deep breath~ y’all will be transported to my Tuscan kitchen for a moment) Add grated cheese and continue until it is a smooth paste. Add olive oil in a very thin stream, beating with a wooden spoon. Finally, add a few tablespoons of softened butter.
This pesto can be used so many ways. We enjoyed ours on thin slices of bread drizzled with olive oil. We were lucky enough to be a few short miles from Pienza~ known for its pecorino cheese, and I was able to find some ‘fiore sardo‘.
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Ciao y’all~
Sandi
This week’s recipe from ‘Essentials of Italian Cooking’ came at the perfect time. I was in Montisi with a garden FULL of fresh Italian basil, cooking in a Tuscan kitchen and my ‘chore’ was to make Pesto, by the Motar Method.
Perfetto!
Marcella has a beautiful page in her cookbook on the true origins of pesto, and the art of creating pesto by using a mortar with a pestle. If you have ever had truly fresh, perfectly prepared pesto on fresh pasta… It will make your heart sing. This is not the pesto-boyRdee, or even what they make in the authentic Olive Gardens across the country. We are talking honest-to-goodness-hallelujah-chorus flavors.
Start with 2 generous cups of fresh basil, that have been rinsed in cold water and dried. Combine in a mortar with sea salt, pine nuts, and mashed garlic. Using the pestle, mash against the sides until a thick paste if formed. (stop here and just take a deep breath~ y’all will be transported to my Tuscan kitchen for a moment) Add grated cheese and continue until it is a smooth paste. Add olive oil in a very thin stream, beating with a wooden spoon. Finally, add a few tablespoons of softened butter.
This pesto can be used so many ways. We enjoyed ours on thin slices of bread drizzled with olive oil. We were lucky enough to be a few short miles from Pienza~ known for its pecorino cheese, and I was able to find some ‘fiore sardo‘.Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Ciao y’all~
Sandi
Millions of people make pesto, darling, and even buy pesto, but there may be just a few score left who can take a deep breath of pesto and let pesto coat their palate and stamp imprint itself on their taste memory having made a mortar and pestle pesto as you just did. The insistence on the Tuscan kitchen is a little distracting, however. There is a lot more to Italy than Tuscany. Let’s remember that it’s the sunlit herb gardens of LIguria that you should feel pesto transporting you to.
We were hardly ever without an aged pecorino di Pienza in Venice, which we used to order by corriere. Let me remind the reader, on your behalf, how lucky you were to have been able to put both a stellar pecorino and fiore sardo into your pesto.
Ahh, let me inhale!
Marcella~ of course the last thing I would do is imply that all of Italy is ‘Tuscan’. I was carried away by the joy of being in Italy and the beauty of your pesto.
It was an honor to be one of the ‘4 pomodori’ in Bologna this week… we toasted to you and Victor.
ciao gioia~