I wouldn't say I have a basil problem; that would imply a certain negative quality. But this time of year, if harvested correctly, the basil plants go crazy. And while you could make endless caprese salads, really the only reasonable use of large quantities of this herb is pesto. Stemming from the Italian pestare meaning to crush, modern pesto is a dish of ground basil, garlic, pine nuts, and olive oil (sometimes cheese) originating from Genoa. According the ever reliable source, Wikipedia, pesto ancestors and basil actually came from different places. The former dates back to ancient Roman times when made with "herbs", whereas the latter immigrated from India (first tomatoes and now basil?)...
Now, most of you have eaten pesto, whether tossed with pasta or spread on some thinly sliced zukes. However, one of the key ingredients, those tasty pignoli, are quite pricey. Saving a few bucks on the nuts, I utilized some extra pistachio (which as also extraordinarily popular in Italy and yet from Asia). Since this is only supposed to take 50 seconds (to read, not write...), visit this previous post for a recipe to follow!
Try this with Choosing Raw's Millet Pesto Summer Salad. Hope to be more on top of things in a few weeks!
1 comment:
My basil plant is out of this world huge. And I love every second of it!!
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