I love pesto and even more than that I love the concept of pesto. Like any recipe it’s a formula but it’s an elegant and balanced formula where variables may change but ratios can remain the same and so the possibilities for a beautiful product are infinite. The easiest recipe I know of for pesto is 4 cloves of garlic, 1 cup walnuts, 2 cups basil, 1 cup olive oil, 1 cup grated parmesan cheese. I know most traditional pesto recipes call for pine nuts but walnuts work as well if not better, they’re very meaty, and they’re cheaper than pine nuts. Put the garlic cloves in the food processor, then the nuts, then the basil and the olive oil, make sure it’s smooth enough paste and then fold in the grated cheese. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
The thing about pesto is that you can substitute in a variety of other herbs or greens like cilantro or arugula, even spinach as well as change it up by using different kinds of nuts, cashews, almonds etc, and even different kinds of cheeses. Now that I think about it I could even use a nut oil instead of olive oil and it would probably be amazing.
