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One of my favourite local pizza restaurants serves a bread basket with three dips: sundried tomato, tahini and pesto. While my sister and orangefoodie make sure to try every dip on the platter, I choose to fill myself up with the pita bread slices and pesto sauce. Sometimes I get so carried away nibbling on these that I end up eating barely a single slice of pizza!
Over the weekend, I tried making my own pesto for the first time. Dead easy! All you need to do is assemble all the ingredients and let the food processor do its job. Thanks to Deeba who mailed me basil seeds, I now have a couple of bountiful pots of basil. I can’t tell you how intensely fragrant home grown basil is compared to store bought. The heady aroma is almost intoxicating. Sometimes I find myself plucking a leaf just to rub it between my fingers and get hit by the sweet smell of basil. I hope you have access to fresh basil,and if you’d like, I’ll be happy to send you some seeds!
I used Ina Garten’s recipe as a base and I absolutely loved how it turned out. In fact, my family has been devouring the pesto as a condiment with every meal for the past few days. I also used part organic pine nut oil to accentuate the pine-nutty-ness of the pesto.
Pesto Sauce
Adapted from: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics
1/4th cup pine nuts
1/4th cup walnuts
6-9 cloves of garlic
1/2 – 1 tsp coarse sea salt
4 cups basil, washed and dried
1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
3/4th cup olive oil
3/4th cup pine nut oil (or olive oil, if you don’t have pine nut oil)
- In a food processor, grind the walnut, pinenuts and garlic to a paste. Add the salt.
- Add the basil leaves and maybe a tiny little bit of oil or water for it to come together.
- Add the parmesan cheese.
- Now through the feed tube, pour in the oils until evenly blended.
- Transfer to a jar and serve and use as you like!
On a side note, I haven’t really thought of too many ways to use pine nut oil besides this pesto sauce and maybe as a salad dressing. What do you generally use it for?
I’ve had my box of Arborio rice for almost over a year now, but never came around to making some risotto. Not because I’m not a fan, but because I was quite intimidated. The box of rice remained vacuum-sealed so I wasn’t so worried (once open, it is advisable that you store it in the refrigerator, else it will go bad really soon).
Once I got down to making it, it was fun. Indian readers, think of it as an Italian khichdi – no really, that’s all it is. 
What’s more, all the carbs and fat gets balanced off by the workout you get by stirring away rice and adding the broth ladle by ladle. That said, Alton Brown does say that you don’t really need to stir it constantly, but I’d just wanted to be absolutely sure the first time I made risotto. Another thing I only recently learned is that a quick way of making the risotto would be to cook it in a pressure cooker and it will be ready sooner than you think! The only thing I don’t like about risottos is that they cannot be made ahead of time since they absorb in all the moisture and the dish gets quite dry.
Risotto can be made with a lot many variations – with seafood, herbs, spices, mushrooms, cheese, and what have you. What’s interesting is that you don’t really need so add much cheese because the rice is extremely starchy; it assists in attaining that perfect creamy texture.
Some Risotto do’s and don’t:
- Choose a heavy pan with a thick bottom and sides to help distribute heat evenly.
- It’s best to buy thoroughly cleaned risotto rice because you want to avoid rising it as the creamy texture is attained by the starch on the rice.
- It’s best to use homemade broth. Follow Alton Brown’s recipe – you won’t be disappointed.
- Always let the broth simmer while adding it ladle by ladle. Keeping both, the rice and broth at similar temperatures will help in achieving the texture sooner; which means being kind to your arm.
Here I’ve tried to replicate a risotto I had at a local restaurant. It was extremely creamy and luscious 3 cheese risotto with asparagus and toasted hazelnuts (I’m not a fan of nuts in my food, but the hazelnuts give it an amazing bite to it – really shouldn’t omit it!)
Three Cheese Risotto with Asparagus and Hazelnuts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
400g Arborio rice
150 ml dry white wine
1.5l vegetable or chicken stock , simmering
60g asparagus, the tough ends trimmed and then blanched
2 tbsp butter
50g Pecorino Romano with truffle bits, grated
50g Gruyere cheese, grated
50g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated. Some more for the table.
30g hazelnuts, toasted
- In a heavy bottomed pan heat the butter and oil together. Add the onion and cook on a low flame until soft and translucent
- Add the rice and stir on a high heat for a few minutes. Keep stirring, or the rice will stick. Add the wine and stir until it has evaporated.
- Turn down the flame now. Add the stock a ladle at a time. Keep stirring until all the stock has been absorbed, then add some more! You might not require all the stock, so keep checking on it. The grain should be nice and plump to look at and have a slight bite to it. I like to add a few spoonfuls of extra broth because I like my risotto to be a little looser than usual – you can avoid that if you like. Add salt if the broth is not salty enough. Also, add the asparagus at this point.
- Turn off the heat and then beat in the butter and pecorino, gruyere and half the parmigiano reggiano cheese. Stir until everything has come together beautifully. Cover it with a lid for a minute. Then serve immediately. Stir in the hazelnuts just before serving. Top with the rest of the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Gnocchi (NYOH-kee) are Italian potato dumplings. They are often dubbed as “smart pasta” because unlike pasta, they rise to the surface when ready. Gnocchi are widely available frozen at supermarkets and are a convenient choice for a quick meal or a side dish. When something is easily available you just doesn’t feel like going through all the trouble of making it from scratch. But when you’ve made your own gnocchi, there is a wonderful sense of accomplishment!
Because gnocchi are so delicate, they are best had with light sauces. Often they are dressed with only melted butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano. The sage, garlic and butter combination is perfect for me because I’m more than happy to have herbs wherever I get the opportunity. Besides, you wouldn’t want to toil in the kitchen after having spent so much time on the gnocchi anyway.
Gnocchi are lighter and more delicate when the potatoes are baked or roasted rather than boiled. That’s a because boiled potatoes will have a much higher water content and therefore, will need to be countered by a higher quantity of flour – resulting in more dense gnocchi. The flour merely does the job of binding the potato together. Thus, the lesser the flour, the lighter the gnocchi.
When you’ve become adept at making gnocchi you could also try potato gnocchi coloured with spinach, carrots, tomato or beetroot.
Gnocchi Recipe
For the gnocchi
1 kg (2 lbs) whole baking potatoes
2 beaten egg yolks
150g (5 oz.) flour
Sage Garlic Butter
A splash of extra virgin olive oil
60g (2 oz.) tablespoons butter
2 – 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Sage leaves, cut lengthwise – quantity depends on your taste – I like mine very, very herby!
Garnish
60g (2 oz.) Parmesan shavings
More sage leaves for garnish
Freshly cracked pepper
A drizzle of truffle oil if you feel like indulging
- Roast and peel the potatoes and mash them while they’re still warm. After you’re done mashing, just fluff them up with a fork to give them some volume. If you have a potato ricer, you could use that instead.Add the flour, egg and salt. Mix by hand until you have a nice a pliable ball of dough. Do not over work the dough.
- Dust your work area with flour. Take the dough, a piece at a time, and roll it out gently with your hands until you have rolls about 1.5cm/0.6″ in diameter. Key here, is do it gently.Cut the tubes of dough into pieces about 2 cms/0.8″ long. Using either the tines of a fork or your fingertip to form an indentation. At this point if you feel you’ve done enough hard work you could just hide the some in the freezer and surprise yourself later! As you are making the gnocchi, place them on flat baking pan, lightly dusted with flour or lined with wax paper. Freeze what you like, them first on a floured or lined tray, then once completely frozen you can put them into a freezer bag.
- To cook, just put the frozen gnocchi into salted water (or add a cube of chicken stock to this for extra flavour) that has come to a rolling boil. Gently drop the gnocchi, a few at a time, into the water. As soon as they rise (about 4-6 minutes) to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon. Drain well.
- Now for the Sage Garlic Butter; in a large pan, heat the extra virgin olive oil, add the butter and garlic and sauté. Make sure the garlic doesn’t turn brown. Add the sage, continue too cook for a minute then add the gnocchi. Sauté till the gnocchi is slightly golden.
- Serve on a plate garnished with parmigiano reggiano shavings, cracked pepper and truffle oil.
This turned out so well, it makes me want to pack my bags and live and cook under the Tuscan sun and learn traditional Italian cooking (the perfect life!).
Helpful tips:
- If it’s going to be a while before your sauce is ready, then remove the cooked gnocchi in a dish and coat with some extra virgin olive oil, else it might stick to each other.
- If the potatoes aren’t warm enough while mashing, heat them over a double boiler until warm again and continue to mash.
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