Making pesto

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bethzaring

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I've seen that not every one has started their vegetable and herbs plants yet, so thought I would put in a plug for parsley.

When I make pesto, I use equal amounts of basil and parsley leaves, mainly to get the nutritional boost from the parsley. Parsley is high in vitamins and minerals, esp iron. I usually have 6 basil and at least 6 parsley plants in the garden. I also can tomato sauce and juice with fresh parsley and basil, as well as other fresh vegetables.
 
I too plant a lot of parsley. I even bring a pot insides during the winter so I can have fresh. I do that with thyme and lemon thyme also. Can't beat the taste of fresh......
 
We have limited space as we live in a condo development. We have a limited garden area.

We have, in past years, planted basil, tomato, thyme, rosemary, jalapenos and tarragon. I think w'ell skip tomatos this year as we have had problems with critters getting more tomatos than we do.

We use all basil for pesto for the flavor (don't look to pesto for vitamins) and we don't plant parsley because of the space limitations and because parsley is readily available and cheap year 'round.
 
To be honest, anything we put in our mouth needs to be nutrient dense. In order to provide our bodies with 100% of the nutrients it needs every day, there is no room for any foods that do not provide nourishment. So you do look to pesto for nourishment, you just may not be conscious of it.

And I guess we eat a LOT of pesto. It is one of the few ways I know of to eat fresh garlic in any quantity. In making my pesto, I use basil, parsley, toasted walnuts, lotsa garlic, xvoo (maybe I will start a new trend on this website with xvoo:mellow: ), kosher salt and parmesan cheese.
I am always looking for ways to use garlic.
 
Our flat leaved parsley sprouts are nicely growing just outside our kitchen window sill, and pretty soon they will be ready for consumption!!:-p
We also do our pesto with all basil, the intense, uniquely aromatic flavour is something that can not be compensated for us, but we do use the parsley for many many other dishes, as they go so well with just about everything, we love our parsley, too!!

btw this is our recipe for pesto genovese.

-fresh basil leaves separated from the stem and well rinsed, then well drained
-Extra virgin olive oil, make sure it is a good quality. about 3/4 of amount (in grams/ozs not the volume) of the leaves.
(please experiment with the amount of below items, adding them gradually... to your personal taste...for a rough measure I use about 75g of cheese, 2 big cloves of garlic 75g of nuts to make about 1lb.)
-well seasoned parmigiano or pecorino cheese, or combination, freshly ground
-cloves of garlic
-mixture of pine nuts and cashew

First you whip the basil with oil in a blender/food processor to make a smooth goo. Then add the next 3 items and mix further until everything is well blended. It can be frozen in rather small amounts, make sure you pack it well and it will freeze fairly quickly. To keep in the fridge you put it in a bottle, and cover the surface with extra olive oil, to avoid the contact with the air.
 
bethzaring said:
I am always looking for ways to use garlic.

Well I am never short of ideas for using garlic.. I love it in just about anything!!:-p :-p (well... maybe not in desserts though...:ROFLMAO: )
 
Flat Leaves!!!!

Hi Licia,

Thanks for the reminder to use flat leaves of parsley, I forgot to say that. The kind found in most markets in the US is the curley leaf and flat leaves are best for pesto!!

Here is a link concerning the benefits of parsley, the website was listed by another poster to this forum.
http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=100
As you can see, curly parsley is shown in this ad. The flat leaved parsley I am using this year is called Giant of Italy Leaf Parsley:cool: . Once any plant has its first true leaves, I start harvesting!
And thanks for the recipe!! Appreciate it very much.........Beth
 
bethzaring said:
...So you do look to pesto for nourishment, you just may not be conscious of it...

That's cool. You can tell what's going on in my subconscious! Amazing!
 
Pesto is a genoese sauce for pasta, jus as written by urmaniac. I spent my young holydays in Liguria, near Genova, for more than forty years.....
The recipe DOES'nt use parsley. Only basil. And the cheese is pecorino: just a bit more tasty than parmesan.
If you like to get patsley as food, use a "green sauce" for boiled meats.
Use minced fresh parsley, olive oil, generous quantity of lemon juice or vinegar (I use lemon), minced garlic, and, if you like (it's a variant)add a minced hard boiled egg. THis sauce is really perfect on boiled meats, and if they are fat the sauce is better: Veal head, cotechino (? how do you call it? the same that the leg of pig, minced), the fat part of beafs, I don't know the english names....
 
Roberto, isn't cotechino a type of sausage that is used for the Capod'anno dinner? (new years eve) Or maybe guessing how some of them are sold, lower portion of pigs leg, more of a toe?

That is one of the few ways (with the parsley and garlic sauce) I actually enjoy beef. On the contrary we usually use lean portion, could be a little on a tougher side but we pressure cook it well (or could be stewed, too I imagine) and make it real tender, too the point they just turn flaky. It is indeed very delicious even if you are not much of a meat eater:)
 
urmaniac13 said:
Roberto, isn't cotechino a type of sausage that is used for the Capod'anno dinner? (new years eve)
Yes, it is.... Minced pig meat, rolled in the pig skin. Or, with the same filling, you can have the real leg (ahead) of the pig, filled (It is "zampone" (=big foot)
 

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bethzaring said:
In order to provide our bodies with 100% of the nutrients it needs every day, there is no room for any foods that do not provide nourishment.

:eek:

Wow, we are a whole-foods, very healthy family, and even I don't have quite that attitude.

I love parsley, but can find organic parsley in the market down the street. In limited spaces, it wouldn't be an herb I plant. It's always nice to know the nutritional value of what we put in our bodies, though. :) I guess I just think there is room for indulgence at times.
 
RDG said:
Pesto is a genoese sauce for pasta, jus as written by urmaniac. I spent my young holydays in Liguria, near Genova, for more than forty years.....
The recipe DOES'nt use parsley. Only basil. And the cheese is pecorino: just a bit more tasty than parmesan.
.

Thank you RDG for the proper instruction. Maybe I should call my pesto, Beth's pesto type product. I love recipes for cooking but rarely follow them literally. I use pesto recipes for guidelines and then use ingredients I have in stock.
 
velochic said:
:eek:

Originally Posted by bethzaring
In order to provide our bodies with 100% of the nutrients it needs every day, there is no room for any foods that do not provide nourishment

Wow, we are a whole-foods, very healthy family, and even I don't have quite that attitude.

I love parsley, but can find organic parsley in the market down the street. In limited spaces, it wouldn't be an herb I plant. It's always nice to know the nutritional value of what we put in our bodies, though. :) I guess I just think there is room for indulgence at times.

Hi Velochic, thanks for the comment and I must respond.....Indulge I do, regularly, check out my recipe for chocolate chip cookies:LOL:

The statement, In order to provide our bodies with 100% of the nutrients it needs every day, there is no room for any foods that do not provide nourishment, is a fact. I have studied nutrition, with trepidation. I was coming from a nuts and berries, organic, whole grains type background into a traditional study of science and I did not know if it would work. But it did quite well. All my gut level beliefs, such as white flour should not be consumed, eggs are an excellent food, butter is better than fake fats, whole grains are the only way to eat grains, milk is necessary for humans every day of their lives.....all these things were taught in the traditional classes. But what really blew me away was to learn that if every day we first consumed all the nutrients our bodies need to do their jobs properly, we would not be hungry for any more food that day. Or to put it another way, everytime we eat junk we are displacing an opportunity to eat a nutrient dense food and that oportunity is lost forever. We can only eat so much food any given day and we short change ourselves nutritionally if we replace a needed nutrient dense food with a junk food.
But I am excellent at rationalization.......I bake all the cookies, brownies cheesecakes and other desserts that I eat, but I make them with all whole wheat flour. So when I eat junk, at least it is whole grain junk, I get a tiny bit of nutrition even in my chocolate chip cookies. Oh.... do I induldge!:angel: :pig: :LOL:
 
Arugula pesto is definitely an acquired taste - lol!!!

That said, I adore pesto & make it throughout the basil-growing season. For those of you who want a source of unbelievably fresh & unbelievably reasonably priced pine nuts, please do purchase from here:

http://www.pinenut.com/order-products.htm

So far above the creepy overpriced stuff in the supermarkets.
 
I only use pine-nuts in my version of pesto. Is this not authentic? It's how I was taught on a cookery course I took in Liguria, many years ago. :)
 
bethzaring said:
I've seen that not every one has started their vegetable and herbs plants yet, so thought I would put in a plug for parsley.

When I make pesto, I use equal amounts of basil and parsley leaves, mainly to get the nutritional boost from the parsley. Parsley is high in vitamins and minerals, esp iron. I usually have 6 basil and at least 6 parsley plants in the garden. I also can tomato sauce and juice with fresh parsley and basil, as well as other fresh vegetables.

Beth, you are a girl after my own heart! I always do the same, although I'm having trouble finding parsley plants thiis year. I guess I should have started my own.
I don't can anymore, but I usually freeze some tomato sauce with parsley, basil, etc. I also puree fresh Italian Parsley, put in a small ziplock, mash it out flat, and seal. When you need it for sauce or soup, all you have to do is set it out for about 5 minutes, break off what you need, and put back in the freezer. I assure you this a safe practice.
You should try roasting some of your tomatoes in the oven! I think I have a recipe on here someplace for oven roasted tomatoes. They make a fantastic tomato sauce.
 
Constance said:
You should try roasting some of your tomatoes in the oven! I think I have a recipe on here someplace for oven roasted tomatoes. They make a fantastic tomato sauce.

Hi Constance!, Thanks for the comments. I am not familiar with roasting tomatoes in the oven, I will search for your recipe. I am clueless as to how to do this! Do you use this sauce fresh, for freezing, are they individually roasted or already in a sauce form???:unsure:

Beth
 
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