Jun 242007
This first day of summer was last week, and a perfect dish for summer is pasta with pesto sauce. It’s a very easy dish with any number of variations. My pesto tonight was fairly traditional: basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and a bit of salt and pepper. I threw everything in a small grinder and a few minutes later I had a nice sauce. While I prepared the ingredients, I boiled some water and cooked linguine. When the pasta was done, I mixed it with the sauce and the dish was ready to eat!
I had my pasta with a nice half-bottle of Domaine de la Solitude Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It had a spicy flavor which complimented the strong flavors of the pesto.
Dad and I celebrated the start of summer with Pesto also. The basil was from my garden. My recipe is similar to yours with the exceptions that I also add parley (which keeps if from turning black), and a mixture of a fairly mild Parmesan cheese (Stella brand) and a mild Asiago. I grate the cheese in a food processor first, then I puree the basil, parsley, garlic and pine nuts with olive oil before adding back the cheese. I also toss the linquini with butter before adding the pesto.
We also had one tiny eggplant from my garden which I sauteed in olive oil and added fresh oregano from the garden.
I made a ham sandwich