Mom's Pesto Recipe
This recipe is also titled really dang good pesto. Around my house it is known as 'the best'. I made this recipe only semi-right (see I am getting better) but it is super good so don't get disheartened or nothin'. So here it is, the best pesto, in pictures!
Equipment needed:
Food processor
Chopping board
Knife
Recipe:
1/2 cup olive oil
A small handful of pine nuts, toasted until fragrant.
1 cup fresh basil leaves, not too tightly packed.
1 "nice sized" clove of garlic (mom's words).
Salt to taste, which can end up being a lot of salt.
So green, so fragrant.
Wash the basil and dry it all by placing it in a tea towel, bunching up the loose ends, and spinning it wildly around the room. I got water right in my eye when I did this. Let it lay out and dry some more while you do other stuff.
An illustration of what I am about to tell you to do.
Be careful not to burn these!
Measure out half a cup of oil and a handful of pine nuts. Place the nuts in a skillet or pot or pan or whatever you got and let them toast dry for a few minutes, turning them so they're evenly browned. Alternately, if you want to save hob space, space them out on a baking tray and put them in the oven at... some sort of high temperature.
Alternately, burn the shit out of the pine nuts (do not burn the shit out of them).
Right, so if you burn them, their smell and taste will dominate the room and the sauce, respectively. So don't do this. See how benevolent I am, doing these bad things on purpose so that you know not to do them? I am Greatest Cook. Especially when it comes to phenomenally easy things.
My mom needs to realize that 'nice sized' isn't very exact or technical.
Blend the pine nuts and oil.
Then blend the basil in.
Then blend the garlic in.
My mom told me to blend the garlic, then the basil leaves. So check out another thing I did wrong maybe? I'm not sure how this affects the taste in any way. Add the salt at this point, or else it's just going to be an oily mess with no flavor.
This is what the pesto should look like.
I re-did the pesto immediately after I realized I had fucked it up bad. The steps are the same and I've adjusted the recipe. So if what you're doing doesn't look right compared to the other pictures above, that's fine.
Hopefully you don't need to be told what I am doing here and how to do it.
I decided to go the obvious spaghetti route. You can add pesto to practically anything and it will taste nice. Put it over any type of pasta, steamed potatoes and sauteed string beans, or as a spread on a sandwich containing roasted peppers. The pesto has no preference and makes most things delicious.
Don't forget to push all your dirty dishes to the other side of the table.
Woo! Dinner!
So there you have it. Advice from the pro that burned the pine nuts: don't burn the pine nuts. Alternately you could use toasted walnuts or hemp seeds if you don't want to drop the cash for pine nuts. Since the pesto has so few ingredients and the only step is blend, feel free to adjust anything to your personal taste. Enjoy.
Equipment needed:
Food processor
Chopping board
Knife
Recipe:
1/2 cup olive oil
A small handful of pine nuts, toasted until fragrant.
1 cup fresh basil leaves, not too tightly packed.
1 "nice sized" clove of garlic (mom's words).
Salt to taste, which can end up being a lot of salt.
So green, so fragrant.
Wash the basil and dry it all by placing it in a tea towel, bunching up the loose ends, and spinning it wildly around the room. I got water right in my eye when I did this. Let it lay out and dry some more while you do other stuff.
An illustration of what I am about to tell you to do.
Be careful not to burn these!
Measure out half a cup of oil and a handful of pine nuts. Place the nuts in a skillet or pot or pan or whatever you got and let them toast dry for a few minutes, turning them so they're evenly browned. Alternately, if you want to save hob space, space them out on a baking tray and put them in the oven at... some sort of high temperature.
Alternately, burn the shit out of the pine nuts (do not burn the shit out of them).
Right, so if you burn them, their smell and taste will dominate the room and the sauce, respectively. So don't do this. See how benevolent I am, doing these bad things on purpose so that you know not to do them? I am Greatest Cook. Especially when it comes to phenomenally easy things.
My mom needs to realize that 'nice sized' isn't very exact or technical.
Blend the pine nuts and oil.
Then blend the basil in.
Then blend the garlic in.
My mom told me to blend the garlic, then the basil leaves. So check out another thing I did wrong maybe? I'm not sure how this affects the taste in any way. Add the salt at this point, or else it's just going to be an oily mess with no flavor.
This is what the pesto should look like.
I re-did the pesto immediately after I realized I had fucked it up bad. The steps are the same and I've adjusted the recipe. So if what you're doing doesn't look right compared to the other pictures above, that's fine.
Hopefully you don't need to be told what I am doing here and how to do it.
I decided to go the obvious spaghetti route. You can add pesto to practically anything and it will taste nice. Put it over any type of pasta, steamed potatoes and sauteed string beans, or as a spread on a sandwich containing roasted peppers. The pesto has no preference and makes most things delicious.
Don't forget to push all your dirty dishes to the other side of the table.
Woo! Dinner!
So there you have it. Advice from the pro that burned the pine nuts: don't burn the pine nuts. Alternately you could use toasted walnuts or hemp seeds if you don't want to drop the cash for pine nuts. Since the pesto has so few ingredients and the only step is blend, feel free to adjust anything to your personal taste. Enjoy.