Pesto

I have a pretty nifty little herb garden. I have rosemary (scads of rosemary), thyme, oregano, sage, chives, basil, spearmint, mint, flat and curly leaf parsley. We also planted garlic that had um, pre-sprouted in the fridge (oops), but nothing has happened with it. Everything is a perennial, with the exception of the basil which I have to plant fresh every year. The parsley comes back too, despite its popularity with the ‘pitters.

We love pesto pasta, and using homemade pesto is the best way to enjoy it. I try and harvest it throughout the growing season, make pesto and freeze it in cubes for later. Other ways we enjoy the basil is with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella with a splash of basalmic vinegar and chopped up into everything we can think of. I recently saw a post for Lemon Basil Granita – if I can find it again, you know that I’ll be trying that too!

Pesto

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil, washed and stems removed
½ cup pine nuts, toasted and chopped
½ cup olive oil (EVOO is best)
½ cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt

Directions:
Reserve a small handful each of basil and pine nuts. Put remainder of these into bowl of food processor and pulse a couple times. Add the garlic. Turn the food processor “on” and slowly pour the olive oil into the mix, then stop. Add the cheese and then pulse a few times to combine. Add back in the reserved basil and pine nuts and pulse only a couple of times. This will help make your pesto look a little less uniform or “processed”, and a little more interesting, textural and chunky looking. Taste and add salt as desired. Serve tossed with pasta or even with crusty bread slices as a dip. Leftovers can be frozen in ice cube trays and then sealed in a freeze-proof zip top bag or food-savered.

Yield: 1 cup

Callipitters, Callipitters Everywhere

I have had a lovely herb garden. I went out tonight to pick some basil for homemade pesto and was brought up short. What happened? Callipitters. (Even at age 9, No Thank You Boy still calls them callipitters. Love that.) What they are is swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. What they eat is parsley; flat leaf parsley to be precise. All of the flat leaf parsley to be even more precise. Curly leaf parsley is only on the menu when all the flat leaf is gone, which will be pretty soon I think. (Note thriving curly leaves in background and stripped stems below). I am so nice I even planted extra for us to share (Pollyanna!) for them to chomp on. Every year it's the same: 'pitters come, 'pitters wipe out all the parsley, 'pitters go... and pupate somewhere else. We never see much of them as butterflies. At all. I finally wised up this year and bought a butterfly bush for them to nosh on. I planted it nearby so that hopefully they'll actually stay awhile after having gorged themselves on my herb garden. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then, how many can you find? Answer below.

Survey says: In these pictures, 12. There are actually over 25 lurking about.

Stay posted for the Pesto post.

When the stars make you drool ...

justa like Pasta Fazoool, that's A-moraaaaay. We love Dean Martin. (Have you seen the Armstrong flooring magazine ads? Makes you look twice. What a great campaign!)

We also love "Pasta Fazool" (aka Pasta e Fagioli). This is a great quick and dirty recipe - my favorite kind. I get a big bang for almost no effort in 15-20 minutes and leftovers to boot. The kids don't like the "fazool" (beans) part, so we leave that out and for tonight I threw in ready made frozen meatballs for a little protein and to make it a little heartier, of course counting out the total number of meatballs so each kid gets his appointed share of the loot at serving time. Kroger makes a frozen version of mirepoix (carrot, onion and celery) that's pre-chopped. When I have a few mintues more and none of the "Mommmmm, I'm hungry" (this from The Messy Eater), I use mild Eye-talian sausage. I have a great herb garden so I always have fresh rosemary and thyme that I send the boys out to pick.
Adapted from Rachel Ray's first cookbook, 30 Minute Meals.

"Pasta Fazool"

4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons (2 turns around the pan) EVOO
3 small carrot, peeled and chopped *
2 ribs celery, chopped *
1 medium onion, chopped *
*I use a whole bag of frozen mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery) noted above for the previous 3 ingredients if I'm totally rushed. Just rinse under warm water to slightly defrost before adding to pan)
2 (4 to 6-inch) sprigs rosemary, left whole
Several (4 to 6-inch) sprigs thyme with several sprigs on it, left intact
3 cans (15 oz each) chicken broth
Coarse salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups uncooked ditalini noodles
Crumbled mild Italian sausage, removed from casing and browned (or frozen pre-cooked meatballs in a pinch!)
Grated Parmigiano or Romano, for the table
Crusty bread, for mopping

Preparation
Heat garlic in olive oil over medium heat in a deep pot over medium-high heat. Add herb stems and vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Lower heat, cover pot and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While this is cooking, in another pan, brown sausage over medium-high heat until cooked through. Add broth to the veggie pot, raise heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the ditalini and sausage (or meatballs - still frozen is ok). Reduce heat to a simmer and cook 10 minutes or until noodles are al dente.
Serve immediately with a generous amount of cheese and crusty bread for bowl mopping.

Feeds up to 4 (although with my junior crew, there are usually some leftovers for me the next day.)