Bright Green Pesto and Its Many Uses

Step 1

Bring a medium-size saucepan full of water to a boil while you rinse basil leaves. Fill a bowl with ice water and place it next to the saucepan with a skimmer close by (a Chinese skimmer is good for this). When water comes to a boil, salt generously and add basil leaves. Push them down into the water with the back of a skimmer to submerge, count to five, then remove immediately with skimmer and transfer to ice water. Drain and squeeze out excess water.

Step 2

Place pine nuts or walnuts in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add blanched basil and kosher salt to taste (I use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon) and process until finely chopped. With machine running, slowly add olive oil and continue to process for a full minute, or until the mix is reduced to a fine purée. Transfer to a bowl. You should have about 1/2 cup of purée .

Step 3

When you are ready to use the pesto, purée garlic in a mortar and pestle, or put through a garlic press, and stir into the pesto (or if using a mortar and pestle, add the puréed basil to the mashed garlic in mortar and work garlic and pesto together with pestle). Add Parmesan and stir in. The pesto will condense when you add the cheese, so even though you’ve added a half-cup of cheese to the purée, you will end up with about 2/3 cup of pesto. Follow the instructions in recipes for thinning out with water.