On this weekly feature, Superfluously from Scratch, we'll chronicle our attempts to make food from scratch that are much more easily purchased in a bottle, box, can, jar, or bag. We'll look at condiments, spreads, snacks, breads, and more. Some will be reasonable, others unreasonable, and hopefully we'll add a few more homemade items to our supplies.
We will rate these recipes by this system:
Never Going Back / Worth it / Fun Once / Never Again / Too Expensive
BASIL PESTO: Never Going Back
We'll start with something I've been dying to make for a while: Basil Pesto. Various people have told me it's either way too difficult or surprisingly easy. I think you'll find as long as you have a good food processor and fresh ingredients, this dish ranks clearly as Never Going Back. Plus it survives well in the freezer, so whip up a big batch when you have the time to clean the food processor and save it for a busy night!
I've made this twice before with the help of my cousin Ellen. We didn't use a recipe, so this time I tried to estimate what went into it. That was a big failure. Just add a lot of basil, just few cloves of garlic (start with 3), a lot of oil, and a good amount of cheese and nuts. Taste along the way! Don't despair if you decide your pesto is to salty or garlicky- just add it to plain pasta boiled in salt-less and it will balance out.
Equipment: Food Processor
Ingredients: Fresh Washed Basil, Garlic, Pine Nuts (or Almonds!), Olive Oil, Sea Salt
1. Wash and dry the basil leaves
2. Throw them into the food processor with the garlic (no need to pre-mince) and pulse until the leaves and garlic look chopped but not yet pureed. If you have a lot of basil, you can pulse the first half then add the second.
3. Add the pine nuts and salt and turn the processor on
4. Add the oil slowly through the top
5. Stop and taste! Add more of any of the ingredients as you see fit- if it's bland, try adding salt or garlic, if it's overpowering add pine nuts, if it's not sauce-y enough add oil.
6. Pour into a container! That's it!
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| Almond and Pine Nut Pesto |
