Basil Pesto

One evening, Daniel entered the front door looking all excited to share with me a big piece of news – his colleague made AMAZING basil pesto for lunch. It was so good that my husband couldn’t stop raving about it. If you know the saying “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”, I was beginning to worry that this pesto treat was turning into an office bromance.

When he brought home some for me to sample, it finally dawned upon me that I couldn’t fault my husband for his moment of “infidelity”. At that instance, even my faithful mind cheated on him (with the pesto, of course). I requested Daniel to ask for the recipe since we can’t be knocking on someone else’s door demanding pesto. His colleague was very kind to share with us this wonderful recipe which I think deserves more attention.

Off to the farmers’ market I went to get a pot of fresh basil. With such high standards to meet, I chose the pot with vibrant leaves and smoothest texture to achieve a richer flavour. Fresh basil is THE key ingredient!

Instead of pine nuts, we used walnuts as recommended by his colleague. I bought a pack of them from a Persian stall in Frankfurt’s Kleinmarkthalle.

As for the Parmesan cheese, I bought a 220g block from a cheese specialist at Kleinmarkthalle for €7,41. It’s definitely a lot more expensive than the pre-grated packet ones you get at supermarkets. However, we really wanted freshly grated cheese for this heavenly sauce! I reckon it will be cheaper elsewhere too but we were playing tourists at Kleinmarkthalle.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 cup of basil leaves
1 cup of walnuts
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp of olive oil
Black pepper, grounded


Instructions
1. Blend basil leaves, garlic, walnuts, Parmesan and grounded black pepper in a mixer. It will become like a paste.
2. In a bowl, mix the paste with olive oil.


Note: Feel free to adjust the amount of olive oil used to achieve the consistency you like. Add more olive oil if you’re using it for pasta. If you prefer more or less of certain ingredients, do adjust the recipe accordingly. Nothing is set in stone here!

Mission accomplished! The recipe worked extremely well for us and it was so easy to follow too. We had the pesto on a few slices of baguette and wrapped the leftover in cling-film for pasta tomorrow.