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Home made fresh pesto. Tastes absolutely nothing like the ready crap you find in the store.
Green pesto with (thin or regular) spaghetti pasta (blend together: garlic, parmigiano reggiano, roasted pine nuts, good olive oil, salt and tons of fresh basil). Serve with some more reggiano and be sure not to over cook your pasta as it completely ruins the dish. Don't trust the boiling time written on the package, taste it.
Red pesto (same as green, but add sun dried tomatoes and/or red bell peppers) with farfalle pasta, as cold salad. Cool the farfalle with running cold water before mixing with the pesto. The farfalle needs to taste very slightly raw in the middle when you take it off the stove or it will be over cooked. Garnish with reggiano, fresh basil, roasted almond slices, olive oil and fresh ground black pepper.
Good olive oil can be hard to find regardless of where in the world you live. It's definitely not enough that it's "extra vergine". I prefer laudemio from frescobaldi in florence, but il genio from montalbano in tuscany is also quite decent (and much cheaper).
If you're on a budget, then make the pesto with a (slightly) cheaper virgin oil and pecorino romano instead of reggiano. Garnish with the high quality stuff.
Vegetarians are fine in my book. I even tried it for a few months and thought it was refreshing. Can't say the same about vegans though.
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