Wow, it’s 3:35 pm as I sit down to type this up. That was fast
Now all I have to do is figure out what to serve it on. Bill’s mother, Rosa, once made us salmon with pesto on top, and some amazing onion side. I haven’t figured out her pesto, or that onion side, but it might be a nice way to do it again. Possibly tonight, as I have some salmon in the house.
The side, though? It will probably be cream of broccoli soup, following “this recipe.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/202-103-Cream-of-Leek-Soup.html Only I don’t have heavy cream on hand, so I’ll use half & half.
So, what was today’s pesto?
h2. Ingredients
Note: All these measurements, except the cheese, are utterly wild guesses. Proceed at your own risk. The cheese I only know because I used about half of a 1/2 lb block.
~3 c basil leaves (not packed)
~2 c garlic scapes, just the green part (Because this “WaPo recipe”:http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2006/06/my_friend_the_garlic_scape_1.html says so.)
~1/4 lb Parmesan cheese, cut into chunks (I know. Shoosh. I was looking for speed.)
~1 c olive oil (total guess here)
~1/4 c toasted walnuts (Because Bill says he thinks his mom uses walnuts in her pesto. Toasted, because I like that best.)
Salt to taste
h2. Instructions
You all probably know how to make pesto. Here’s what I did, though, in case you don’t. However, I don’t really know either, so go with what you know.
I dumped the scapes into the bottom of the food processor, then dumped in all the basil. I ran the thing for a bit until everything was a bit chunky. I scraped down everything as necessary, to help with consistency. Then I tossed in the Parmesan chunks, and gave it another couple of 3 or 4 second pulses. Once everything looked right, I threw in the toasted walnuts & pulsed that into teensy bits. I pulsed everything until it was all basically uniform chunks. Uniform TINY chunks.
Then, with the food processor running, I added olive oil until it had about the right consistency. Roughly a thick paste. Then I tasted it, tossed in some salt and some more olive oil, and went at it again. Once that was all mixed in, a second taste said, “YES!”.
Then I put it in the fridge to contemplate it’s doom in my stomach.
