The week is flying by, and I am a little afraid we will not have a new pesto recipe for this week. BUT! We did eat the last of the Harvest Pesto last night, and we were out of regular noodles, so we used Korean sweet potato starch noodles. These are clear noodles with a springy, chewy texture. We bought ours at the Chinese market, dry, and they came in a plastic sack.
We had never before tried any kind of clear noodles with pesto, but this combination was surprisingly good. I think the slight sweetness of the apple in the Harvest Pesto meshed well with the (very) faint sweetness of the noodles.
It is true I will eat almost any kind of pesto and any kind of noodles, so maybe I'm a biased taster. :) But if you happen to have some of these Korean noodles around, give them a try with some pesto, and let me know what you think!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
First post: Harvest Pesto
Welcome to The Besto Pesto! Don't you love my super-pixely Besto Pesto Man? This blog is the invention of the lovely Jackie, the person who can never eat enough pesto (me, Lisa aka Satsumabug), and Erik, the modest creator of all this amazing pesto. We came up with the idea during one giddy evening of delicious pesto -making and -eating, in which Jackie and Erik invented the following, our inaugural, recipe:Harvest Pesto
about 30 leaves fresh basil
1c diced Granny Smith (or other tart) apple
5 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
3/8 c canola (or other light-flavored) oil
1/4c walnuts
1. Toast walnuts: Crush nuts into small pieces* and toast in dry pan over low heat, until fragrant.
2. Grind apple: Put diced apple into mortar & grind with pestle. Soak up excess liquid, remove apple mash from mortar, and set aside.
3. Make pesto: Put basil leaves, toasted nuts, salt, and garlic into mortar. Grind with pestle. Add apple mash and grind until you have a rough paste.
4. Finish: Transfer mixture to bowl, and mix with oil.
*Erik says he does this with his thumb, which seems crazy to me, but to each their own!
about 30 leaves fresh basil
1c diced Granny Smith (or other tart) apple
5 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
3/8 c canola (or other light-flavored) oil
1/4c walnuts
1. Toast walnuts: Crush nuts into small pieces* and toast in dry pan over low heat, until fragrant.
2. Grind apple: Put diced apple into mortar & grind with pestle. Soak up excess liquid, remove apple mash from mortar, and set aside.
3. Make pesto: Put basil leaves, toasted nuts, salt, and garlic into mortar. Grind with pestle. Add apple mash and grind until you have a rough paste.
4. Finish: Transfer mixture to bowl, and mix with oil.
*Erik says he does this with his thumb, which seems crazy to me, but to each their own!
We put hearty dollops of this pesto onto cooked thin Chinese noodles (the long white kind that come in a hefty box), and it was fantastically delicious.
We thought of this blog because Erik has been concocting fabulous pestos week after week for the past month or so, while I've been wrapped up in sewing things for a craft fair, and our CSA box has been replete with basil and other leafy greens. First we had basil pesto with pine nuts and Parmigiano -- the old standby -- but one week we ran out of everything and had to improvise. Erik whipped up an astoundingly good pesto from arugula and toasted walnuts, with no cheese, and the pesto experimentation began.
Erik is great at making pesto, but he doesn't like blogging, and I do, so we've worked out this agreement: he'll make the pesto and jot down the recipes, and I'll do the writing.
The premise: every week Erik will do something new with pesto. He might make a new pesto recipe, like tonight's Harvest Pesto, he might tweak just one ingredient (using toasted walnut oil, for example, instead of canola or olive), or he might try different ways of serving the pesto (atop roasted butternut squash, perhaps).
As long as the pesto keeps coming, I'll keep writing this blog and smiling about it!
We thought of this blog because Erik has been concocting fabulous pestos week after week for the past month or so, while I've been wrapped up in sewing things for a craft fair, and our CSA box has been replete with basil and other leafy greens. First we had basil pesto with pine nuts and Parmigiano -- the old standby -- but one week we ran out of everything and had to improvise. Erik whipped up an astoundingly good pesto from arugula and toasted walnuts, with no cheese, and the pesto experimentation began.
Erik is great at making pesto, but he doesn't like blogging, and I do, so we've worked out this agreement: he'll make the pesto and jot down the recipes, and I'll do the writing.
The premise: every week Erik will do something new with pesto. He might make a new pesto recipe, like tonight's Harvest Pesto, he might tweak just one ingredient (using toasted walnut oil, for example, instead of canola or olive), or he might try different ways of serving the pesto (atop roasted butternut squash, perhaps).
As long as the pesto keeps coming, I'll keep writing this blog and smiling about it!
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