the pesto prophecy
pasta / pizza / freezer + notes on three summer pestos
Did you grow up eating pesto? I can’t recall the stuff.
My oft-beautifully-cliche Italian American childhood memories do conjure (huge) trays of hand-stuffed Manicotti during the holidays. The Struffoli, Sfogliatella and Spumoni. Don’t even get me started on the appearance of dreamy, creamy, and intriguingly adult Tiramisu. Goodness.
Yet…there’s a blank on Pesto. I was a picky kid, and must have avoided the pungent, garlicky green spread. I believe it.
My clearest memory of pesto is one in a jar, and it’s from the cusp of entering my twenties. I had a roommate in Cambridge - East Cambridge over by MIT but not too far from Central Square, to be exact - during the end of my off-campus college years who would buy a small jar of pesto - I’m seeing sundried tomato - and toss it with pasta and sliced red onions (which I am no fan of, more on that another day). Was it for a warm dish, chilled pasta salad, or both? Who’s to say. I’m thinking dinner + budget-friendly work lunches. She was cool, for the record.
I didn’t make and therefore, try, this pesto thing on my own until my first or second Portland summer. My new friends raved about pesto, so when my first-ever local CSA came with a ginormous bag of basil and a recipe, I got to work pureeing (in what was also my first and since broken food processor, no less).
Now, I wouldn’t say I was a convert to pesto pasta quite yet, that happened in Alaska. Really.
However, that increasingly long-er ago summer, I was officially a fan of spreading pesto on top of roasted and grilled things: baguettes, farmers market vegetables, tofu, tempeh, seitan, quinoa…whatev. I was getting into it.
Pistou! Pesto! Reckoning!
Nearly two decades later, here I am, in a place where basil is WAY more of a luxury, without a greenhouse (tba), yet, an actual pesto person. So much so that I’ve spent the end (or middle, you never know up here…) of my summers in the interior making batches of various pestos to freeze in blocks and small jars, minced basil ice cubes, basil packed in kosher salt, and now two jars of basil-infused vinegar for salad dressings. I highly recommend it all to anyone else with a dark, lack-of-produce winter 🙃.
[Pardon the interruption - I was literally taking a lunch break to reheat two slices of pizza - one with last summer’s beet top pesto, and another with classic Genovese - aka cleaning out the freezer for more ‘22 archives-to-be ! !]
And here we are, summer 2022. Another…interesting….one. Indeed. On the bright side – and before the six-ish minutes of sunlight we lose a day begins to call for headlamps – I wanted to wax on about pesto some more, and celebrate the flat we took home from the Tanana Valley Farmers Market on July 16th.
Gosh, those were a thrilling, basil-packed two weeks or so of pasta, pizzas, stir-fries & more, to be continued with four varieties of bonus pesto now in the freezer, to be cherished even more seriously in the winter months ahead.
SCENES FROM SUMMER 2022 - IN ALL THINGS PESTO:
[with a breakdown of three pesto recipes below]
ON MAKING THREE VARIETIES OF PESTO:
(Psst, writing a long scroll of ingredients was driving me a litle bonkers on this ‘scrap, so I made that little graphic elsewhere. Tah dah? Tah something.)
SOME GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING PESTO IN A FOOD PROCESSOR:
Quickly toast the seeds/nuts and peeled garlic in a dry cast iron pan, if using. Let cool briefly and add to your food processor with a metal blade.
Add everything but the oil and final water, run it quickly for a moment, and then pulse a few times.
Scrape down the sides with a spatula and continue to pulse, now adding in the olive oil and optional water as needed.
Adjust your seasonings to taste (more salt, pepper, lemon juice, nooch, etc) continuing to scrape down the sides as you reach the desired consistency (not TOO smooth, you want some texture here).
Store with a little olive oil on top in the fridge in a sealed container - and freeze leftovers on parchment in bags or freezer safe containers, labeling with the date and contents (!)
CAVEATS AKA NOTES:
Long story short, I developed an allergy to treenuts after devouring hazelnuts in my early Portland years. What a tale. Hence, you see my usage of pepitas and sunflower seeds in lieu of the classics. Feel free to sub in walnuts, pine nuts, brazil nuts, aka whatever you like!
Summer pesto has its variables. Be sure to adjust the seasonings to taste. If you add too much miso, add more greens. Too many herbs? Missing *something*? Add in more fresh lemon or even lime juice. Perhaps, a bit more miso for the oomph that comes with aged parmesan.
When I talk about cups of herbs, I am going for well-packed but not stuffed measuring cups.
Oh! And feel free to be more generous with the olive oil. Skip the water.
THE PROPHECY CONTINUES…
“I did it.” - Jules
And let me tell y’all - I cherish Thai basil EVEN MORE than the sweet Italian varieties. I KNOW. I heart aromatic pad gra pao & just CRAVE pad kee mao & scintillating herb-packed northern curries & any anything sweet thai or holy basil so, so much. I have a decently sized Thai basil plant not pictured today.
And last but not least, the aforemented ‘archive pesto’ pizzas, one with a dark red beet top spread and the other with a classic Genovese base…
THE PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED.
Are you a pesto person? Yay or Nay ?!
References + Relevant Links (as of late):
The Democrat Who Could Become the First Alaska Native in Congress, The New York Times August 17, 2022
Roberta’s Pizza Dough recipe, Food.com my go-to whenever I have four hours to play with – and not a far walk from my sister’s in Brooklyn
Sauces & Shapes by Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant wildly, I have yet to make one of their pesto recipes !
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Rosso, Platings + Pairings I used this recipe as a basis for the one above, although with far less tomato for a less crimson fate : )
These recipes have made my mouth water!!
I am such a fan of homemade pesto, the vegan stuff in a jar is pretty dry and vinegary - EXCEPT Barilla vegan pesto which is just as salty/ basily/ parmesany as the original, but you can't get it here! So when I was in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, I stocked up!
I'm definitely keen to try all the variations .The other day I dabbled in a broad bean and pistachio pesto and it was delicious (plus, I felt pretty fancy spreading it on my pumpernickel toast). Definitely agree with the pesto power sentiment here in the comments section too!
Pesto power 🪴