My dad makes the best pesto and I have tried to replicate it several times, to no avail. Today was no exception. I called Dad today and tried to get him to reveal his source, which he claims is The Silver Palate Cookbook. Here is the recipe he gave me:
2 cups basil ("You're going to need a lot")
4 medium garlic cloves ("Easy on the garlic though, that can get pretty strong")
1 cup nuts ("You can use any kind of nuts")
1 cup olive oil
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Romano cheese
Combine basil, garlic, and nuts in food processor until well chopped. Add olive oil in a thin stream while food processor running. Add a liberal amount of fresh ground pepper. Add cheeses.
Easy! My mistake today was not thinking about the quantity of nuts. He may have been lying about that. Typically pine nuts are used, which I love. However, the last batch of pesto made by my dad he accidentally used some Macadamia nuts that Nora brought home from Tanzania. He thought they were peanuts. Incidentally, it was really freaking good pesto, not to mention extremely valuable. Since I had some Macadamias that Nora gave me as a gift a while back, I thought, why not? Fortunately my error was not so grave that it destroyed the valuable pesto--it turns out 1 cup of Macadamia nuts is enough to take over the flavor of the pesto. I added more basil and things seemed to have turned out OK. Good but not as good as my Dad's.
I could eat pesto on everything. Today I had it on really good rustic bread that had olives in it. I will probably eat it on some pasta for dinner. Yum, and yes, I have terrible garlic breath.
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1 comment:
Your dad made pesto one of the first time's I ever had dinner at your house. Right before we were about to eat he looked at me intensely and asked, "Do you like pesto?" I think I made the mistake of answering truthfully with an, "It's O.K." Little did I know that he made the best pesto ever.
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