Pesto pesto

Recently, I got a sweet basil plant with the intent of whipping up a batch of homemade pesto.  It turned out to be a long and arduous journey, involving no less than five grocery stores to acquire all the ingredients.  Do you know how hard it is to get pine nuts in Elmhurst?

Anyway, ingredients in hand, I parked myself in front of my woefully-underpowered blender and set to work on two batches, one using the traditional recipe with pine nuts and one with walnuts instead of pine nuts and added parsley to give it a little twist.  The traditional batch was a little more nutty, while my custom creation was a little more mellow.  Here is the link to Saveur magazine that inspired my creation.

Classic pesto genovese recipe:

INGREDIENTS

4 cups packed basil, blanched briefly in boiling water and shocked in ice water

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Process basil, oil, parmesan, pine nuts,and garlic in a food processor until smooth; season with salt and pepper.

Pesto di noce (walnut pesto)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups packed basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup toasted walnuts
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
1/2 cups packed fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic
Sea salt and  black pepper, to taste