This week’s recipe is inspired by Nat’s trip to Helsinki where she visited an organic herb and lettuce farm.  The photos are amazing!  These herbs make you want to roll around in them!

Recipe (adapted) and photos from http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001570.html

Ingredients:

1 large bunch of basil (or coriander), leaves only, washed and dried

3 medium cloves of garlic

one small handful of raw pine nuts

roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED

A few tablespoon

s of extra-virgin olive oil

Method:

Start chopping the garlic along with about 1/3 of the basil leaves. Once this is loosely chopped add more basil, chop some more, add the rest of the basil, chop some more.  Scrape and chop, gather and chop. At this point the basil and garlic should be a very fine mince. Add about half the pine nuts, chop. Add the rest of the pine nuts, chop. Add half of the Parmesan, chop. Add the rest of the Parmesan, and chop. In the end you want a chop so fine that you can press all the ingredients into a basil “cake”. Transfer the pesto “cake” to a small bowl (not much bigger than the cake). Cover with a bit of olive oil, it doesn’t take much, just a few tablespoons.You can set this aside or place it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Just before serving give the pesto a quick stir to incorporate some of the oil into the basil.

Hints:

– The key to the best Pesto is chopping all the ingredients by hand with a sharp knife or cutter, or with a mortar and pestle.

– This recipe does not include salt so you may want to add some to the water for your pasta or add to your dish to taste.

– Pesto freezes extremely well.  You can put it into ice cube containers, freeze and then package in individual portions in good storage containers for later use.  It will last 3-4 months.  Perfect for when you have too much basil or coriander in the garden to use all at once or when it’s cheap in season.