An unconventional pesto

I have to tell you that I am not a big pesto fan, or to be more precise, I haven’t been in the past but things are changing slowly.

I think that my prejudice is born from the fact that the very first time I ever tasted pesto it was really dry and bitter and generally unpleasant.

The memory of this has kept me from ever ordering it anywhere else and I have stayed away from it for years.

Recently I was invited to dinner and our hostess (born and raised in Genoa) served a traditional pesto (which, at first, I ate just to be polite) that was light and creamy and so delicate that I was taken aback. So much better than I remembered!

Based on that experience I have removed pesto from my list of *foods I can live without* and that encouraged my husband to take an idea and run with it.

How many times have you been making an old favourite and then thought to yourself *hmmm, what if I add …*

Well this tends to happen a lot at my house, sometimes because we’re feeling creative and sometimes because we have something in the fridge that needs to be used asap.

The other night, my husband was making an awful lot of noise in the kitchen and it turned out that he was having one of those *hmmm, what if I add this* moments.

Only when I heard *Hey, grab the camera*, did it occur to me that someone else is getting as invested in this blog as I am!

He was experimenting with pesto, adding ingredients that may very well cause every man, woman and child in Liguria to rise up in protest, but as long as the end result is tasty, I’m all for experimentation.

The ingredients

Keep in mind that with pesto, a little goes a long way so you really don’t need large amounts of the ingredients and if you end up making to much it freezes great.

Try freezing it in ice cube trays so have small portions you can use a little at a time.

Ingredients for 6 – 8

40 gr blanched almonds

40 gr grated pecorino

30 gr rocket/arugula

10 gr basil

2 gr fresh chives

80 ml extra virgin olive oil

20 ml white truffle oil

1 garlic clove

Wash and dry the herbs.

The purists can place the rocket, basil, chives and garlic in a mortar and crush until creamy.

Add the almonds and repeat the process.

Stir in the oil and cheese.

For those who are in more of a hurry, place all the ingredients, except for the cheese, in a blender and blend until creamy.

Stir in the cheese.

The pesto made using an immersion blender

Let the sauce rest for at least an hour.

Prepare your favourite pasta and toss with the pesto.

Garnish and serve

I found this pesto to have a lighter, more delicate flavour than the traditional recipe and I have to admit that I like my husband’s version much better than the original.

I will definitely be requesting a repeat of this in the future and I plan to test it out on unsuspecting relatives and friends this summer.

Have a wonderful weekend!

 :grin: