Comments on: Pesto http://www.houseboateats.com/2009/07/pesto.html Life and thyme in a small floating kitchen Sun, 26 May 2013 18:30:09 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Matilde http://www.houseboateats.com/2009/07/pesto.html/comment-page-1#comment-1201 Matilde Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:59:41 +0000 http://houseboateats.info/?p=13#comment-1201 Good evening! (or, at least, it’s evening here..)
First of all THANK YOU for NOT using food processor to prepare pesto! I’m Italian and I really love to see some interest in our typical foods =) but, if you don’t mind, I’d like to give you a little suggestion. In Italy we never chop the basil with a knife for the same reason we don’t use the food processor: basil leaves oxydise (hope it’s spelled right) when in contact with a metal surface, like the knife’s blade. We have two special objects especially designed to make pesto: they’re called “mortaio” and “pestello”. Here’s a pic:
http://www.ikea.com/it/it/images/products/rora-pestello-e-mortaio__62424_PE169126_S4.jpg
The best thing is a marble (or stone, uh) “mortaio” (the “bowl-like” thing) and a wood “pestello” (to actually break the basil leaves). If you can’t find them, it’ ok also to use a stone or wooden bowl of some sort and a wooden stick, large and well cleaned of course. We star with garlic cloves and a pinch of coarse salt to help making it a sort of paste, then add the pine nuts, the basil leaves, oil and parmesan. A little tip for having really flavourful and scented pesto is to put mortaio and pestello in the fridge for about half an hour: basil hates hot surfaces!
Keep up the excellent work, love your blog!

Matilde from Florence =)

]]> By: Houseboat Eats: Farro Soup with Sausage http://www.houseboateats.com/2009/07/pesto.html/comment-page-1#comment-638 Houseboat Eats: Farro Soup with Sausage Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:34:23 +0000 http://houseboateats.info/?p=13#comment-638 [...] mom serves the soup topped with a nice dollop of fresh pesto, and it’s delicious. Try [...]

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