As the weather cools here in Australia, I always mark the end of summer with the digging up of the remaining basil in the garden and making one of my all time favourite sauces: pesto.
I usually have enough for a freshly prepared jar in the fridge and a few more jars in the freezer which ends up being an enjoyable reminder of the warm weather to arrive when we are in the deepest, darkest depths of winter longing for the warm summer afternoons that November brings.
For me, pesto is a perennial favourite that can be enjoyed many ways, the most popular and widely known, being with pasta. There are several other ways that I also enjoy pesto: generously spread over toast as a mid-afternoon treat or as an antipasti; smeared over a juicy steak; or stirred through soup as a finishing touch. Each of these transform an ordinary meal into a sublime one.
There are two ways that pesto can be made, one using a pestle and mortar or the quicker way with a food processor. I tend to use the food processor for convenience, however the texture achieved with the pestle and mortar is very different and should be tried at least once.
I use a recipe that I have adapted from the original Marcella Hazan recipe where she instructs you on how to make pesto by either method and whether it is being made for immediate consumption or to be frozen. To freeze pesto the dairy ingredients are not added, just the processed basil, garlic, pine nuts, salt and oil are frozen. Once defrosted, the grated parmesan and pecorino cheeses are added along with butter. The result is the closest to freshly make pesto that you can find.
Pesto - preparation in a food processor or blender
2 cups fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoons of pine nuts
3 cloves of garlic
1 decent pinch of salt
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons pecorino cheese
2 tablespoons butter
Wash and dry the basil leaves. Pull the leaves off the stem of the basil, you only want to use the leaves. Place the basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and salt into the food processor or blender. Blitz until you have a lovely green paste. You will need to stop once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl and add more olive oil if need be. You want to create a lovely paste that is not too dry or too runny.
If you are going to freeze your pesto, stop now and put into a container and into the freezer. If not, then put the pesto mixture into a bowl, add the grated parmesan and pecorino cheese. If you only have parmesan, just use this - not to worry. Mix the cheeses through the pesto mixture until combined. Then add the butter that is softened at room temperature and mix through thoroughly.
Taste the pesto at this point to see if you need more salt or olive oil. If you are unsure, leave it on the bench and let the flavours meld together and balance themselves out. I find that by doing this it gives everything a chance to settle down a little and enable the final combination of tastes to come into their own, you will be surprised as to how the basil changes in flavour. After about 20 minutes, taste again and see what the flavour is now like, then add salt or oil as needed.
Stir through warm pasta, top with cheese and enjoy!
Vegetable soup
1 onion, diced
1/2 carrot
1/2 stick of celery
1/4 capsicum
1/2 tomato
1/2 zucchini
1 small piece of cauliflower
small piece of pumpkin
one small potato
one small swede
a good glug of olive oil
pinch of salt
a few grinds of black pepper
2 cups of vegetable stock either fresh or powder base mixed with water - have enough to cover the vegetables
a small handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
a generous teaspoon of pesto
a small handful of grated parmesan cheese
Dice up all vegetables listed, if you don’t have this exact list of vegetables, improvise with what you have in the fridge, this combination is by no means a hard and fast rule of what to use. Remember to dice the vegetables to a size that is easy to eat in a soup but don’t make some things too small as you want everything to cook evenly.
Heat up a good glug of olive oil in a generous sized saucepan, I have a stock pot that I make soup in. Once the oil is heated, add the onion, carrot, celery, potato, pumpkin and swede and fry these gently until they become bright in colour. Add the cauliflower and tomato leaving the zucchini and capsicum for later. Stir all veges well until they become a little soft.
Add the stock along with salt and pepper and let this come to a simmer and cook until the hard veges are almost cooked. This can take about 30 minutes depending of the exact amount of soup in the saucepan and how big or small the veges have been cut up.
Add the zucchini and capsicum and any other soft vegetables that you are using. Let the soup simmer for a little longer until these are cooked. Stir through some freshly chopped parsley.
Serve immediately with a teaspoonful of pesto topped with some grated parmesan - a lovely finishing touch. Enjoy!
