My Humboldt County microclimate is hostile to the growing of many garden vegetables. One of my faves when I lived in SoCal was basil, which I turned into pesto. Alas, no basil where I live unless I want to build or buy a greenhouse – I don’t.
But lo! The local farmers market started last Tuesday and I snagged a goodly complement of basil and garlic at a reasonable price to begin my annual “pesto season,” which lasts until the end of August.
Yesterday I made it all up. My current recipe, garnered from the internet a few years ago, consists of basil, pine nuts or walnuts, garlic, romano cheese and olive oil. No salt or pepper because I usually give some away and some folks are picky about salt.
I got to thinking that perhaps the Café Society folks might have a twist to my ingredient list or a proportion variation that they prefer. For example, my sister asks me to double the garlic if I am making a batch for her family. Another requires pine nuts (the ideal) and will actually give me five dollars to buy them for her batch.
Okay, Café Society. Anyone want to offer opinions on pesto?
I always use walnuts or pecans in preference to pine nuts. I think they have better flavor. I also add just a touch of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of sugar. This helps to bring out the flavor of grocery store basil, which can be a little bland sometimes. You might not need it with home-grown stuff.
I love fresh pesto. I could eat it by the spoonful.
Basil and other things will certainly grow in the warmer (inland and southern) parts of Humboldt. I am more coastal so my microclimate is breezy and too cool for basil.
With apologies to Twoflower, pistachios instead of pine nuts is a fantastic substitution, especially if you can find a good price on shelled pistachios at a place like Costco. Also, I like to say “pistachio pesto”.
I don’t know where Humboldt county is, but basil grows readily in Montreal. Even this so-called summer which has been cool with lots of rain.
I think pine nuts are definitely worth it, although it pistachios sound interesting. My wife harvests all the basil in the fall and makes a large amount of pesto base (just the basil and cheese) that she freezes in small containers and finishes whenever we need pesto.
For a delightful experience someday make a pizza with pesto sauce, crumbled goat cheese, cut up olives (something fairly strong like kalamata) and broken walnut pieces. Top with ground mozzarella and bake.
My neighbor gave me some pesto she had made, apologizing that it had a lot of garlic. Yikes. That is grounds for praise, not apologies. And it was wonderful. I got a recipe for a creamy pesto sauce with chicken and pasta from the internet and it made my guests think I could cook. I need to figure out a polite way to ask her if she has made any more pesto; she was saying she had planted too much basil this year. I could offer to buy the pine nuts and cheese; I suppose I could just beg for the basil and make it myself but hers was pretty perfect. If I get some more I’m going to try Hari Seldon’s pizza.
I agree, pine nuts all the way, and they should be toasted before grinding. The grind itself should be minimal, and the olive oil added, by hand, after the grinding is done, since blending EVOO can bring out bitter flavours.
Big bags of pine nuts from Costco last for ages in the freezer, and are a reasonable price.
When I visited the farmers market I did pick up a few of the garlic scapes. I had never seen them before. My second batch contained the scapes. I have to be honest and say the garlic flavor, scapes or clove, in my pesto was beyond my difference tasting. But I did enjoy chewing on the scapes.
I’ll be jumping on the almonds and cashews approach. Pine nuts in the quantity I would usually consume each year are prohibitive. But Costco might be a source.
Well, you can throw some basil in there as well to temper the garlic if you like. I really adore garlic myself. I harvested what I planted last fall just this afternoon actually. 61 glorious bulbs. Yum.