Adrian's Pesto

Ingredients:

Basil

Parmesan cheese

Pine nuts

Lemon

Gralic

Salt

Olive oil

 GOOD pesto can not be made with those little ripoff bunches you buy at the supermarket for 5 bucks a piece. You need lots of Basil!!!! 

Plant some (it grows easily anywhere!) or find someone who grows it. Basil gardeners are often overwhelmed by their product as it grows like a weed and most people do not freeze their pesto, so a lot of the plants go to waste.

Use good extra virgin olive oil. You will use lots. So try to find a good deal somewhere for one of those large tin container.

For the love of Gawd! DO NOT make pesto in a food processor!!!! Blasphemy! You will destroy the experience of eating pesto. The magic of a good pesto is twofold: the combined taste of all of its ingredients and the individual taste of each…Ok? That is the trick. You must cut and mix these ingredients with that in mind.

Get a hold of a big cutting board like the one in the pic. Chop you basil leaves with a large stake/chopping knife (have someone teach you how to chop using the fat part of the knife that is closer to the handle, if you don’t already know how to do this) Chop into a paste. For this part you could use a food processor, but you will lose lots of basil stuck all over the damn thing…I hate those things! Forget I said you can use them!

Chop your pine nuts coarse. Bunch them up and crush them with the flat of the knife. Then chop some more. Make sure you don’t create too much nut "dust"…It will contaminate the pesto’s flavor.

No, you can’t use any ole nut. Most nuts, like walnuts or pecans are too bitter. Almonds are too sweet. Pine nuts are it for this recipe. Don’t get ripped off! People charge outrageous amounts for pine nuts,  but they can be acquired cheaply too…be creative.  They must be fresh. Pine nuts go rancid. Taste a couple before you buy them.

Do not use those silly garlic pressers. You are making oil then, not chopping garlic. Chop your shit you bums!!! You want your garlic chopped small, but not too fine.

Use good Parmesan from block-grate it  fine. NEVER buy pre-grated Parmesan. Lame.

Use good lemons. I add lemon to cut the thickness of an otherwise oily and overly rich sauce. I like the freshness it brings to the palate. If you don’t then don’t add it.

Put the basil in a large bowl. Add your oil, garlic, salt and lemon, but not the cheese yet. The cheese absorbs too much oil so you want to let the oil work with your base ingredients first. 

Mix it all up nicely. The mix of the ingredients is up to you. Cheesier? Nuttier? More lemony? experiment.  No matter how you do it, you will continue to have to add a criminal amount of oil as the ingredients absorb it. It will feel like a lot, but it is THE WAY.  Pesto is an oil “informed” sauce! It swims in oil! Now, if you want, you can make it thicker and then add more oil later before serving. The advantage of this is that you can freeze more of it if you are making a huge batch after a basil harvest, like I usually do. Anyhoo, put that damn oil in there until it floats above the ingredients. Add the cheese and put more oil still when the cheese thickens the sauce too much. The pic below lacks oil. The cheese has over-thicken it. So add more.

This Pesto freezes great. Its a mess to make, so make a nice huge batch. Invite the tribe. Make it a social event. Send everyone home with some. 

Pasta wise...use good fresh pasta please! As a last resort, use frozen. never dry. This pesto is good with rather neutral stuffed pastas, like mushroom, beef or ricotta ravioli. Not so great with spinach  seafood or stinky cheese stuffed pastas...Red wine, of course. Serve with a good Greek salad and good white flour bread fried in olive oil and butter. Then have sex!