Cooking For Engineers

[kurt]

Have pesto year round by freezing it. To keep the brilliant green color; however, you must blanche the leaves prior to preparations. The blanching water takes all of the iron out and turn a dirty brown, leaving the leaves brilliant green. Use the wilted leaved to prepare, as usual.

Tip from Tyler Florence, as I heard it first. I've tried it and will never do it any other way again.

[Thor]

My kids don't seem to care about the shade of green their pesto exhibits. So I'm not sure I'll try this this summer. But I do freeze pesto. I do a bunch in ice cube trays. Two thawed cubes feeds my offspring perfectly. I also do some in small tubs, probably a third of a cup or so, for making a meal for all.

I also do the same thing with unused chicken stock. It's nice to have frozen cubes around for a recipe that only calls for a couple of tablespoons or a quarter cup.

[Guest]

Yup, I'm an avid pesto eater, and and I freeze a lot of it.

Actually, if you add a little lemon juice before you grind up the basil, it will stay a nice green. This is because the acidity of the lemon juice denatures the oxidase enzymes that discolor the basil. Besides, a little lemon juice really enhances the flavor.

[youngcook]

How do you all make it?

[pbone]

youngcook - I don't know how these modern types with machines make it, but here's how I learned to do it in Italy, in the early 70's.
Mash up with a morter and pestle a bunch of chopped garlic with kosher salt. Til it's a paste. Add a load of basil leaves; if they're chopped a bit first, it's easier. Once again, make a paste, now bright green and fragrant.. Then. add a bunch of grated really good parmigiana cheese ...okay, asiago or romano will do, but the best is parmigiana reggiano...and mash the hell out of that...still in the same bowl. Then you add a bunch of pignole or pine nuts, or walnuts if you don't have pine nuts and smash that in. Finally, by drops, you add fine olive oil, bash that in as well, and when it gets the right texture, voila! I mean, Ecco! pesto. I personally like to use the morter and pestle method, because there's something about the texture and the mashing together of the ingredients that is BETTER than doing it in my old waring blender....which I have done and would never snicker about...just do the main ingredients in a pulse way, and add the olive oil at the end by drops. Still pulsing. (I have never had a cuisinart or any of that more up to date machinery.) But really, even though your forearm gets tired, I think you get a better texture for putting pesto on pasta with the old fashioned way. Compare: you'll see)))sp

[Auspicious]

[pbone]

How'd you like that pesto, Dave? I didn't tell you any exact amounts because people's taste varies w/ garlic, basil, etc. I use about a teaspoon of Kosher salt with the garlic (about 6 healthy cloves) and equal amounts of everything else, about a small handful each, and about 2 to 3 T of olive oil. Actually, the substitution of walnuts for pignole is a very tasty variation.