Pesto

Kenji video here that I took the recipe from.

Quick note, I watched a video where “Andy makes Bon Appetit’s Best Pesto” and he complains how hard it is to make by hand and encourages people to use the food processor. In Kenji’s video, he explains how much better it tastes because your crushing the basil not chopping and that it’ll emulsify better with the oil and pasta when you make it. Crushing in a mortar and pestle isn’t that hard and the results are amazing. I highly recommend. Would recommend throwing chicken on it/green beans/fava beans/something extra for dinner.

Serves 2.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of basil, semi packed, doesn’t hurt to use more
• 2-3 garlic cloves (used 2)
• 1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts
• 3/4 cup of grated parm
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 8-10 oz of (preferably die pressed for increased starch) spaghetti

Directions

• Toast pine nuts in a pan, keep them moving, I burned them quite easily.
• In the pestle, sprinkle salt, grind the garlic
• add pine nuts and incorporate
• add a handful of the basil at a time until incorporated
• add parm until incorporated then add small amounts of oil, it should emulsify immediately
• taste for salt, add if necessary
• store in a glass container, pour some olive oil over the top so it stays fresh, cover with saran wrap up to 4 days

To increase starch in the water, cook the pasta in a pan so that the water covers it. Don’t use a huge pot of water. Cook pasta and reserve some of the water. Lightly oil the pasta, put the pesto in the hot pasta with some of the pasta water and mix. This will yield a very creamy pesto. It’s really amazing. I like to add more water to make the sauce thicker and cover better.

NOTES:

• Use real parm instead of domestic. It makes a difference in taste.
• Doubled this for 1 lb of pasta. It’s too much oil, use 3/4 cup