Jump to content

Menu

Needleroozer - Pesto sauce


Recommended Posts

Okay. Now I can't remember if you are dairy-free or not, but we are. Also, once you get the hang of what this tastes like, you won't need a recipe- you just go by taste, adjusting as you go. I love those kinds of recipes. :-)

So first, here is the original recipe with cheese:

Pesto (I think this is originally from James Beard)

4 cups fresh basil

2 to 3 (or more) cloves garlic

1/4 to 1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 to 3/4 cup parsley

1/2 to 1 cup olive oil (use the good stuff!)

1 tsp salt

1/2 to 3/4 cup parmesan cheese

Put your basil, parsley (I break off just the biggest, woody stems, but put it in stems and all) and garlic in the food processor, with a bit of the olive oil. Once there is more room in your processor, add your pine nuts, and cheese. Keep blending and adding the olive oil until you get a smooth, creamy paste.

Taste it- sometimes you need to add more garlic, or more cheese. You don't want the parsley to outweigh the basil flavor, and you want a nice sharp bit of garlic. The cheese and nuts balance it out.

 

Now we are dairy free, so make it without cheese. I just eyeball the ingredients- first stuffing my processor with the herbs (TraderJoes has big boxes of basil that work great and are not too pricey), then adding probably 4 garlic cloves, and close to a cup of pine nuts to make up for the cheese. I end up tasting as I go.

 

Now, you can put it into small tupperwares to store in the fridge. If you want to freeze it, it is best to do so without the cheese. For freezing, I use the littlest plastic containers. Some people freeze it in ice cube trays, but that isn't enough for me.

 

The easiest way to use it is after you cook your pasta and drain it, put it back in your warm pan, and put some pesto in, and stir it around. The warm wet pasta will soak up the pasta perfectly. At our house, we just put the pasta on the table, and scoop it out onto our noodles. Dh uses about a tablespoon, dd and I use half a cup each- not kidding.

 

Once you have the garlic sauce, try the two flavors together- yummy on anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...