pesto

[julia walsh]

What are the three main ingredients of pesto - and can you make it yourself?

[FionaS]

Basil, pine nuts, olive oil - and yes, you can.

[rekstout]

Garlic and pecorino or parmesan cheese are also traditional. Just toast the pine nuts by heating in a dry frying pan and grind it all up.

[aloha]

Pesto means ground paste in Italian, and can be made from many things, hence sundried tomato or olive pestos. Of course the most often referred to is the basil pesto. BASIL: Wait till it's on sale and then buy huge amounts. Or, it's easy to grow, and you can keep it leafy by pinching off anything that even resembles a flower. Virgin or extra virgin olive oil,pine nuts [or walnuts for a quite tasty variation], garlic and HOME-grated romano,pecorino or parmesan. What I do in all of my variations is to very very briefly parboil the basil. I find that that takes away the licorice-y flavour that some basils have, but I've only heard of one other person doing this. Puree the lot very well. Now, hopefully you have a huge amount of pesto ready. It freezes extremely well, and some people freeze it in ice trays and then can pop out the cubes to have the right amount for a pasta dish or other recipe. Note: when the pesto is frozen, you must move it to an airtight container [shrink-wrap freezer bags are the best]or overtime it will collect ice-crystals and dry out the surface a bit. P.S. A gift of pesto makes a friend for life.