Post by Catbatty on Jul 26, 2020 3:58:45 GMT -5
My basil is beginning to go-to flower so I cut off a bunch, cleaned and dried, removed stems and packed it into my food processor with blade inserted.
I had no FRESH lemon. I had little Parmesan. I had no pine nuts. I did have lots of cloves of garlic, peeled.
So, I lightly toasted some pecans on stovetop, tossed some of them in. Squirted in liquid lemon juice (yes, I did buy some at some point in the past why? I dunno. not great stuff.)
The Parm I had was all molded, except for some very old Stella crud that had all turned to granules. (Tasted ok, so, yes, ugh, tossed some in...not a lot.) Added ALL the cloves of garlic...(we do love garlic). Added a small amount of pepper and lemon pepper and red pepper flakes, AND some Kosher salt. And pour in some olive oil.
Pulsed often, stopping to scrape down sides and to taste for corrections. Awful stuff. The lemon did little to improved it, I discovered.
But I kept on pulsing and testing... and testing...and testing. Started out pretty awful. Adding the salt helped a bit.
Tested some more. Added more oil. Tested more. Tested and tested and tested and ...
It sits now in a covered glass bowl, in the fridge. I added a small layer of more olive oil over the top... after I tested a few more times. I really did not want to stop testing. Each spoonful made me want more of that bad stuff.
At midnight. I had to make myself stop dipping in. It was so AWFULLY good.
Yikes. Can you really make it -- almost out of NOTHING -- and it's still great? (I don't even LIKE basil!! Not much anyway. A little goes a long way with me. However, I like it better than tarragon--way better. I avoid that herb. Would like to change, but...)
So, not being very familiar with Pesto... I am left wondering: can you MAKE a bad pesto? My ingredients were less than stellar. The stuff tasted almost BITTER. It really needs some fresh lemon. BUT, nonetheless, it's addictive!
I'm going to freeze some of it tomorrow.
I'm going to ponder what the heck I can do with the rest of it. (Besides standing over it and testing it repeatedly.)
So, can you ever hurt it? What all have you put in it? What have you used it for? Do you have a favorite recipe for it? Do you ever just EAT IT?
Thanks for reading all this.
Catbatty
I had no FRESH lemon. I had little Parmesan. I had no pine nuts. I did have lots of cloves of garlic, peeled.
So, I lightly toasted some pecans on stovetop, tossed some of them in. Squirted in liquid lemon juice (yes, I did buy some at some point in the past why? I dunno. not great stuff.)
The Parm I had was all molded, except for some very old Stella crud that had all turned to granules. (Tasted ok, so, yes, ugh, tossed some in...not a lot.) Added ALL the cloves of garlic...(we do love garlic). Added a small amount of pepper and lemon pepper and red pepper flakes, AND some Kosher salt. And pour in some olive oil.
Pulsed often, stopping to scrape down sides and to taste for corrections. Awful stuff. The lemon did little to improved it, I discovered.
But I kept on pulsing and testing... and testing...and testing. Started out pretty awful. Adding the salt helped a bit.
Tested some more. Added more oil. Tested more. Tested and tested and tested and ...
It sits now in a covered glass bowl, in the fridge. I added a small layer of more olive oil over the top... after I tested a few more times. I really did not want to stop testing. Each spoonful made me want more of that bad stuff.
At midnight. I had to make myself stop dipping in. It was so AWFULLY good.
Yikes. Can you really make it -- almost out of NOTHING -- and it's still great? (I don't even LIKE basil!! Not much anyway. A little goes a long way with me. However, I like it better than tarragon--way better. I avoid that herb. Would like to change, but...) So, not being very familiar with Pesto... I am left wondering: can you MAKE a bad pesto? My ingredients were less than stellar. The stuff tasted almost BITTER. It really needs some fresh lemon. BUT, nonetheless, it's addictive!
I'm going to freeze some of it tomorrow.
I'm going to ponder what the heck I can do with the rest of it. (Besides standing over it and testing it repeatedly.)
So, can you ever hurt it? What all have you put in it? What have you used it for? Do you have a favorite recipe for it? Do you ever just EAT IT?
Thanks for reading all this.
Catbatty
