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Pesto!!

July 15, 2012 by Mary Frances 7 Comments

Pesto on a spoon.I had a dinner party this past Wednesday night that was so much fun. One of my senior designers who worked for me years ago, I think back in the late 80’s, was in town and got in touch. She now lives in Singapore. She connected with another former designer and I got in touch with Carl, who was the second person I ever hired for the firm in the early 80’s. So with other friends, we were 8 people in total and three were past employees of PM+CO! It was just great catching up. Linda is a vegetarian and I wanted to make sure the whole meal was amassed with local farm vegetables from upstate, to bring great country flavors to a NYC dinner party. So I started with a salad of farm lettuce and arugula from my garden, topped with roasted beets, Coach Farms goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and a sherry vinaigrette. I then roasted two huge trays of vegetables – yellow squash, zucchini, Portobello mushrooms, eggplant, Vidalia onions, smashed whole garlic cloves (from Ethel’s garden), red, and orange peppers and baby turnips – with Greek olive oil and French grey salt. I made a mass of steamed Jasmine rice, folded in Goya black beans (for protein) and for the non-vegetarians, I pan roasted 2 whole chickens seasoned with salt, pepper and Garam Masala. It was all really simple. I also had made some basil pesto the night before from basil in my garden, picked on Monday. I decided to put some of that in a bowl and people spooned it on everything and even took some home! I was originally going to fold the pesto into the rice and beans but after taking a survey from everyone during the cocktail hour, we decided this was the way to go. A dollop on top on the vegetables was divine. Barbara asked for a batch as her Christmas present and Mary Beth took a container full home. People just wanted to eat it straight. I really never dreamed of that for pesto. I just wanted to serve it because I had just made a bunch and with our youngest being in Europe, we couldn’t possibly eat it all, although pesto does freeze quite well.

We finished the meal with a rhubarb crisp (really quick and easy to make) topped with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream. Not bad for a weeknight dinner party!

Here is the pesto recipe. Remember, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients for any dish you make, so use the very best you can.

PESTO
-makes about 3 cups

3 cups of packed basil leaves, thoroughly washed and dried
6 – 7 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups Greek extra virgin olive oil (I like Athena brand)
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan (Reggiano) cheese
2/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (Locatelli) cheese
salt
pepper

In a large food processor, combine basil, garlic and walnuts. Process to make a near paste. Scrape bowl. With machine on, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Scrape bowl again. Add the cheeses, a big pinch of salt and 20 grinds on fresh pepper. Process again, taste and add more salt, if necessary, to your liking.

A one cup portion is enough to coat 1 lb. of dried pasta, cooked. I like it on fusilli best as it can get in all the little groves for maximum coverage and flavor.

This freezes well.

Basil in garden.

Basil in my garden.

Pesto pasta and tomatoes in a white bowl.

Dinner with our good friend, Nancy, on Saturday, started with this course.

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Filed Under: Dinner, First Course Tagged With: basil, Garam Masala, Locatelli, parmesan, pecorino Romano, pesto, PM+CO, Reggiano, rhubarb crisp, roasted chicken, roasted vegetables, senior designers, weeknight dinner parties

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Comments

  1. accordingtocarey says

    July 26, 2012 at 11:26 AM

    I make my pesto with walnuts too! I love the earthy flavor and the price tag compared to pine nuts. Especially since we grow our own walnuts 🙂

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      July 26, 2012 at 11:42 AM

      Definitely the price is right – and especially for you – lucky you! Do you also grow black walnuts?

      Reply
      • accordingtocarey says

        August 7, 2012 at 2:14 PM

        No, as far as I know they are English Walnuts, but they are yummy!

        Reply
  2. Our Adventure in Croatia says

    December 5, 2012 at 8:41 AM

    being Italian I absolutely love pesto, and pasta con pesto, and a friend always brings it for me from Genova. Real pesto, and it does freeze very well..
    I’ve never seen it done with walnuts, I do mine the traditional way with pine-nuts. Looks yummy!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      August 25, 2013 at 12:57 PM

      Pine nuts are certainly the traditional way but I do like the walnuts. It’s a woodier, deeper flavor to me. (Is woodier a word?) Also, it’s a lot cheaper. Give it a go and let me know what you think.

      Reply
  3. Pat Sylvester says

    July 31, 2013 at 1:08 PM

    I came across this as I was grabbing a quick lunch. I just put a pot of homemade pizza sauce on the stove from the garden tomatoes and was thinking I need to do a batch of pesto because the basil is crazy wild right now. Perfect! My afternoon will be dedicated to your recipe most likely with a mix of pine nuts and walnuts.
    Pat Sylvester recently posted…What I’ve Been Up ToMy Profile

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      August 1, 2013 at 1:26 PM

      Great! Let me know how you like it.

      Reply

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