Friday, July 20, 2012

Pesto Da Nonna Italiana

Pesto Da Nonna translates to pesto from your Italian grandmothers place.  I love pesto. It is the one thing that I always ask for in return for my travel tips to Rome. Just kidding, the advice usually comes for free but if people DO ask, my answer is pesto. I don't really discriminate but if you're thinking about getting me some, pesto from the Northern part of Italy is the best :) Anyway, I had seen this post on one of my favorite blogs back when I was studying abroad in Rome and surrounded by delicious pesto. At the time, I had no need to spend hours chopping in the kitchen to enjoy a delicious bowl of pesto made by an italian grandmother. Turns out, I still don't. Although I spent almost and hour chopping the the basil into bits to get the ideal texture Hiedi talks about, I can't say its absolutely necessary, next time I'll just toss everything into a food processor! I know, blasphemy!!! Anyway, it is a great recipe and everyone who had it was not only impressed by my effort but also blown away by the taste. Don't worry if you don't like cheese it's still good!My mom, who does not touch cheese (literally scrapes the cheese off her pizza) packed two days worth of lunch for herself before any one else could get any. You can choose to use your pesto for whatever you'd like, I made a pasta salad with TJ baby heirloom tomatoes... I wanted to add ovolino fresh mozzarella but they were out at ALL the groceries stores in the area. Quick tip-- if you're using grape/cherry/baby heirloom tomatoes that are not completely ripe, I boiled mine with the pasta for a minute or two.

Pesto Da Nonna

Ingredients:
1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
3 medium cloves of garlic
one small handful of raw pine nuts
roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED
5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil


Directions:
  1. Start chopping the cloves of garlic with 1/3 of the basil leaves. Once the basil is loosely chopped, add another third, chop more, repeat until all leaves are chopped. Took me 30-40 minutes
  2. Add half a handful of the pine nuts and continue chopping. Once the pine nutes are fully incorporated and chopped add the other half.
  3. Add half of the freshly grated parmesan and chop thoroughly. Repeat with the other half.
  4. After all the ingredients are thoroughly chopped and can be scrapped to form a pesto mountain, transfer it to a small container and pour olive oil over. Refrigerate until usage!! Give it a quick stir before you actually put it to use!

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