Basil Pesto
Pesto the most famous italian sauce is a perfect and fool proof recipe to make any pasta taste and appear exotic. The rich textured sauce is widely available in most of the supermarkets in India. I am giving the recipe below so that it could be made at home when you really long for authentic food.
So coming back to the recipe,
Ingredients
1/2 cup Pine nuts (try almonds if you dont find these. It is chilgoza essentially)
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil
Bunch of Basil leaves (washed and dried)
Parmesan cheese to taste (optional)
Method
1) Chop the pine nuts and garlic finely. Avoid using the food processor as we want a crunchy texture for the pesto
2) Add the chopped basil leaves and mix while adding the olive oil
3) You can bottle this and store in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks at this stage.
4) You can add the parmesan cheese just before adding to the recipe you plan to use.
When I was on an official trip in the UK, I had an Italian house mate who used the bottled pesto sauce daily to make her dinner. For her it was similar to me making my dal daily. She failed to understand how could I eat dal with rice or chapati or bread and never got bored of it just the way I saw her using the pesto on breads, pastas or pizzas. I think pesto has the staple food syndrome which hits most people when they are away from home and miss home made food.
Ingredients
1/2 cup Pine nuts (try almonds if you dont find these. It is chilgoza essentially)
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil
Bunch of Basil leaves (washed and dried)
Parmesan cheese to taste (optional)
Method
1) Chop the pine nuts and garlic finely. Avoid using the food processor as we want a crunchy texture for the pesto
2) Add the chopped basil leaves and mix while adding the olive oil
3) You can bottle this and store in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks at this stage.
4) You can add the parmesan cheese just before adding to the recipe you plan to use.
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