Basil Pesto
FROM: Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking Cookbook
Pasta with pesto is a good lesson in why Italians so often insist on adding a spoonful of pasta cooking water to pasta sauce. Try it here and you will see how creamy the pesto becomes on the pasta.
If your pesto typically turns army green shortly after you make it, you’ll appreciate the beauty of this version. I blanch the basil briefly to set the color, and I add a pinch of powdered ascorbic acid (vitamin C), which keeps the pesto from oxidizing.
Ingredients
Serves: Makes about 3/4 cup, enough for 1 pound pasta.
2 cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
Sea salt, preferably Gray salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of powdered ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl, and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the basil in a large sieve and plunge it into the boiling water. Immediately immerse all the basil and stir so that it blanches evenly. Blanch for about 15 seconds. Remove, shake off the excess water, then plunge the basil into the ice water bath and stir again so it cools as fast as possible. Drain well.
Squeeze the water out of the basil with your hands until very dry. Roughly chop the basil and put in a blender. Add the garlic, salt and pepper to taste, olive oil, pine nuts, and the vitamin C, if using. Blend for at least 30 seconds. In this way the green of the basil will thoroughly color the oil. Add the cheese and pulse to combine. The pesto will keep several days in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.
Tips
I use pure olive oil for pesto so the clear flavor of the herb dominates. If you want to freeze pesto, omit the nuts and cheese.
Michael’s Notes: Don’t try to make this pesto in a food processor. The processor just throws it around the bowl. A blender does a much better job. Be sure to thin the pesto with some of the hot pasta water before tossing it with pasta.
Basil Chive Butter
Ingredients
Ingredients
Serves: Yields: 1 1/2 cups
4 cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1/8 teaspoon powdered ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
Sea salt, preferably gray salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons unsalted butter), at room temperature
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh chives
Directions
Blanch the basil in boiling salted water just until wilted, about 10 seconds, then drain and transfer to ice water. Drain again and squeeze dry. Chop roughly.
Puree the basil, ascorbic acid, salt and pepper in a food processor. If the mixture is too dry to puree, add just enough water to ease the process. Add the butter, in tablespoon-sized pieces, and puree until smooth and well blended. Taste and add more salt if desired. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the chives by hand.
Refrigerate until firm enough to shape into a log. Put an 18-inch sheet of aluminum foil on your work surface. Spoon the butter down the center of the foil into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Enclose in foil and twist the ends to make a sealed log, like a Tootsie Roll. Refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 6 months.
Roasted Garlic-Thyme Butter
You'll never run out of ideas for using this seasoned butter, which you can keep in the freezer and slice as you need. I love it on mashed potatoes and tucked into baked potatoes, or as a finishing butter for risotto, swirled in at the end. You can also toss it with fresh pasta and Parmesan on one of these evenings when you don't feel like cooking, or let a nugget of it melt on a grilled New York steak. Imagine how good a burger would be if the toasted bun were spread with this butter.
Ingredients
Serves: Makes 1-1/4 cups
1 large or 2 small heads garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
Extra-virgin olive oil to cover
1 cup (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh thyme
Sea salt, preferably gray salt
Directions
Put the garlic cloves in a saucepan with just enough olive oil to cover them. Place over low heat and simmer until the cloves are soft and golden, 30 to 40 minutes. With a slotted spoon, scoop the garlic into a bowl, then mash to a puree. Immediately strain the oil through a coffee filter and reserve.
Process the butter in a food processor until smooth and creamy. Add 1/4 cup of the garlic puree (save any extra for spreading on bread), 1 1/2 tablespoons of the reserved garlic oil, the thyme, and a pinch of salt. Process until well blended. Taste and add more salt if needed.
Refrigerate until firm enough to shape into a log. Put an 18-inch sheet of aluminum foil on your work surface. Spoon the butter down the center of the foil into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Enclose in foil and twist the ends to make a sealed log, like a Tootsie Roll. Refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze for up 6 months.
No comments:
Post a Comment