Mary Ann's Blog
Pesto For St Patrick’s Day
March 16, 2012
Thinking of something green for St Patrick’s Day? Well, there is always the traditional boiled cabbage dinner, but how about making a delicious pesto sauce for pasta, fish or chicken. Fresh basil is available in your local stores right now, a sure sign of good summer eating to come.
The word pesto comes from pestare, to pound, because this classic fresh basil sauce from Genoa is traditionally made by pounding the leaves into a pulp using a mortar and pestle. Since most people do not have a mortar and pestle, using a food processor is a good alternative even though the purists would definitely frown on this. Pesto’s sweet, slightly peppery flavor marries well with many foods. Try to use small leaf basil for the recipe as it has much better flavor than larger leaves. Use pesto for pasta or stir it into minestrone soup or baste it on grilled fish, chicken or pork.
Get my recipe for classic pesto sauce here.
Note: For a pound of pasta, 1/3 cup of pesto sauce mixed with two tablespoons of the pasta cooking water is enough
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