I Got Trapped In Time Ribbon And Lived To Make Pesto
Pesto is like heroin: don’t even try it unless you’re ready to become addicted. It’s one of those easy cooking wonders where all you have to do is pound up some spices, throw in some nuts, garlic, cheese, and olive oil and you’ll have people lapping up their plates. And it’s similar to those old choose-your-outfit flipbooks where you can mix and match ingredients. Basil, arugula, or sage for your leafy spice, walnuts or pine nuts, and then some parmesan, olive oil, garlic, and you’re everyone’s favorite cook. Toss with pasta, spread on pizza, mix with chicken, meat, fish or just slather on toast, it’s hard to find something it doesn’t liven up.
That’s great and all you say, but where’s the juicy tabloid pulp lastomach readers are looking for? Aha, I quip back… there’s more… You see last night while I was scanning the Farmer’s Market Bounty in the fridge, I got caught in a time ribbon — you know one those things from out of science fiction where the laws of physics go haywire. I kid you not. For a brief moment last night, someone from the land down under beamed foodie thoughts into my head. Really. No it wasn’t Crocodile Dundee, it was a nice Aussie named Cathy.
Now if I drilled a hole through my apartment, down to the earth’s core, and then popped up on the other side of the globe, I’d be at Cathy’s place. And at the very moment I looked in the fridge yesterday, Cathy was on her computer longing for summer (since it’s winter below the equator so says my 3rd grade science teacher). Cathy saw my Farmer’s Market Bounty, wracked her brain about “cooking counter-seasonally,” and then wrote in suggesting “tomato and basil pasta.” Now that’s where it gets interesting, since at that very same moment, I pulled my bunch of basil, head of garlic, and handful of strawberry tomatoes out of the fridge. Cathy had succeeded in hotwiring my brain and I spent the next half hour whipping up a basil-based pesto, frying up my tomatoes and garlic, boiling some fusili and making this week’s Pasta a la Cathy.
la stomach 
awsome texture in your pesto…try throwing some pesto in a chicken breast (stuffing it) and wrap it in Prosciutto or bacon…its awsome pesto rocks
That looks magic! I have made home made pesto before but it certainly didnt look as good as that ! Glad I was of some use in a heroic crocodile dundee sort of way.
I have made walnut and home grown rocket(arugula) pesto unfortunatly it tasted like slightly nutty grass. Even a crocodile wouldn’t have eaten it and they are not particularly hard to please.
Cathy, I’m wondering how you made your rocket pesto and if maybe we can figure out how to at least please the crocodiles and hopefully you!
Yes Jp08 chicken pesto really rocks with a little pork pizzaz. I also sometimes make a stuffed chicken breast with pesto, goat cheese, roasted peppers, and sun dried tomatoes in inside. Drizzle a little extra pesto on top and bake in the oven and you’ve got your pesto fix.
This pesto looks great. I just tried making pesto for the first time the other day. I have a gift for you on my blog: http://dishingupdelights.blogspot.com/
Yee-haw — our friend over at Dishing Up Delights has honored us with our very first award! She also made a mean pesto so head on over to her site to check it out everyone: http://dishingupdelights.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-first-award.html
I’m totally inspired! I went to the farmer’s market this weekend (something I rarely do), bought a bunch of ingredients I’d read about you using over the past couple weeks, and dished myself some delicious pesto last night! It was amazing.
Also on the radar for this week: strawberry rhubarb 🙂 yummm
Pesto was made with walnuts, rocket, Parmesan, olive oil , think I may have used a bit of walnut oil . It was the rocket that was disapointing, it was scary and really peppery fresh, then mixed with the other ingredients it was about as scary as a doughnut!