"The Lady Doth Pro-Pesto Too Much"

By Meghan Clark in Food on Aug 17, 2007 11:38PM

With all of the rain we’ve had recently, Chicagoist has been forced to abandon our nightly summer ritual of grilling for indoor cooking. While we don’t mind cooking indoors, it tends to heat up the whole Chicagoist pad no matter how high we turn up the air conditioning.
Thankfully, the rain has also helped our basil plant grow beyond our wildest expectations—and the best thing we can think of to do with a whole load of basil is to make pesto. We’re big fans of pesto in the summer because we usually have most of the ingredients in the house and it requires no heat to create it.

Pesto is easy to make, providing you have a food processor or blender. Without one of those, you’re sunk. You’ll also need enough fresh basil to fill a little over two cups of it when chopped. Take the larger leaves off the top of the plant and be prepared to take a lot of them. Additionally you’ll need a cup of extra virgin olive oil, lots of garlic, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts—however, walnuts will work, too. In short, mix it all together in the processor and you’re set.

Of course, boiling the fettuccini to go with it creates a bit of heat, but our air conditioner can still handle it. According to our friend’s Italian grandmother, it’s best to use dry pasta instead of the fresh stuff because it’ll hold the flavor better.

But what happens when we have a craving for homemade pesto around the first snowfall? Chicagoist’s basil plant is sure to be filled with icicles by then. This is one time when you’ll want to follow your mother’s advice and plan ahead. Pull one of those empty ice cube trays out of the freezer (how come no one ever refills them?) and fill it with pesto. All winter long, the fresh taste will remain frozen in convenient pesto cubes and ready for the next batch of fettuccini.

Photo by author.