A Sauce for All Seasons
Pesto


For years the discussion has carried on covering the merits of freshly made pasta, dried commercial pasta and commercial supposedly fresh pasta in the market refrigerated section.


On top of that, you are deluged with advertising for sauces made by everybody except Jennifer Lopez and Shrek. The answers to both enigmas are simple. Buy the pasta but make the sauce from scratch.

Except for lasagna and ravioli, dry pasta from Italy such as De Cecco or Barilla at $2 a lb. will provide the same satisfaction as homemade pasta, which takes hours to make. If you are a sport, consider moving up to gourmet Italian pastas such as Rizzo, Rusticana, Cavaletta and others. Stay away from the $1 Ronzoni-Creamettes stuff and the hyped pseudo imported pasta by Francis Ford Coppola at ridiculous prices. Especially stay away from the overpriced mush in the refrigerated sections. People are shot at sunrise in Italy for using that stuff.

But spend a few minutes making the sauce fresh. The rewards are remarkable. Start by making your own Pesto sauce in a food processor. It is simple and foolproof since it incorporates the three most important ingredients in Italian cooking…. Basil, True Regianno Parmigianno cheese and virgin olive oil. Fresh basil is expensive. If you plan to become serious, buy 4 or 5 basil plants for about $2 each at the nursery and plant them.  Each plant will provide you with about $10 worth of basil during the season. . If you are not sure, buy fresh basil at the market. You will need about $6 worth.  Use quality ingredients. It makes a tremendous difference.

Food Processor Pasta Enough for 6 servings (1 lb. of pasta)
2 cups fresh basil leaves tightly packed
½ cup virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 cloves garlic lightly crushed with a heavy knife handle and peeled 		¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup freshly grated Regianno Parmigianno cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Romano pecorino cheese.
3 tablespoons butter softened to room temperature

1.      Put basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves and salt in processor and mix at high speed. Stop occasionally and scrape ingredients down toward bottom with rubber spatula.

2.      When ingredients are evenly blended, pour into a bowl and beat in the two grated cheeses. This is easy and produces a better texture and flavor than blending in processor. When cheese is evenly blended, beat in softened butter.

3.      That’s it. When pasta is ready, al dente, pour a tablespoon of  hot water from the pasta pot into Pesto before spooning over pasta.


* Note: In Italy pasta is not supposed to swim in sauce. At first, it might not appear to be enough sauce. But you will quickly realize that the flavors are intense enough to come through and the proportions are just right.