We don’t have a garden or a truck patch; we can’t even grow good tomatoes around here. But, we can usually grow a few herbs in a flower bed or a pot. My favorite herb is basil, and we usually have several plants growing in a flower bed somewhere.
At the end of summer each year, I usually harvest the basil and make pesto. That’s what I did today. I made regular pesto and had enough basil for three batches with enough left over for making several batches of one of my favorite recipes—“Tomato Pesto” (see below). I froze most of it.
I pulled up the basil by the roots, then broke off the roots and washed the basil plants with a hose outside. I hung the basil in the garage until it dried. After the washed basil had dried, I brought in inside, stripped off the leaves and made pesto!
To make these pesto recipes all you need is a food processor and all the ingredients, of course. You basically dump everything in the food processor and let ‘er rip.
I got the recipe for pesto from “Simply Recipes” but any recipe will do. All pesto recipes are all about the same.
Fresh Basil Pesto
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
- 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions
- Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic and cheese and pulse a few times more.
- Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
I spooned the pesto into ice trays (yes, we still have some ice trays) covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. After it is frozen, I will remove the pesto from the ice trays and place the frozen cubes in a plastic bag. Our favorite way to use the pesto is very simple. We thaw a two or three cubes of the pesto and use it as a sauce for pasta. Simple, easy, tasty.
Now here comes the good part.
I got this recipe from my friend, Jim. Jim is a gentleman, and when you taste this recipe, you will agree he is a gentleman who has good taste in food. I believe the original recipe came from America’s Test Kitchen. We call it Tomato Pesto.
Pasta w/tomato and Almond Paste
(Pesto Alla Trapanese)
Sicilian village of Trapani
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
- 1/4 Cup slivered almonds (I used whole toasted almonds; it all gets chopped up anyway)
- 12 ozs Cherry or grape Tomatoes (about 2 1.2 cups)
- 1/2 Cup packed fresh basil leaves
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced or sliced
- 1 small pepperoncini, stemmed, seeded and minced (A half teaspoon of red wine vinegar and ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes can be substituted for the pepperoncini)
- Table salt
- pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1/3 Cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 lb pasta, preferable linguine or spaghetti
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan plus extra for serving.
Directions:
Toast almonds – cool
Process cooked almonds, tomatoes, basil, garlic, pepperoncini, 1 tsp salt and red pepper flakes in food processor until smooth. Slowly drizzle oil with machine running.
Cook Pasta and reserve 1/2 cup cooking water.
Drain pasta and return to pot.
Add the fresh pesto and 1/2 Cup Parmesan to cooked pasta.
Serve with extra Parmesan.
Enjoy! Thanks, Jim.
