pesto

 

 Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved

mixed herbs and garlic scapes

It is a little new for me to think of making a pesto with anything but the HEAPS of basil available at high Summer. I guess that is because that is the type of pesto I grew up eating. Basil pesto had a real moment of chicness in the 80's when it suddenly appeared on menus everywhere, and in every hippie household with a mortar and pestle. Now, a new breed of pesto has emerged. It has been on my mind often this Spring and Summer since Easter, when I made a ramp pesto inspired by something I had had at Marlow and Son's. Pesto, like so many things is having it's moment... A reinvention of sorts, where anything green goes! It has popped up all over the place and with the most unusual ingredients. I recently had a nettle pesto on a sandwich at Saltie, in Williamsburg and a dandelion pesto with pasta at Roman's. Last Summer, while in Italy, I had a most delicious sage pesto served with a ragged and shaggy  Maltagliati pasta. 
Maltagliati pasta is a pasta made from scraps and cuttings of left over pasta dough after other pastas have been made. Add kale, garlic scapes, mixed herbs and arugula to that list and you have a whole new way to eat your greens. With a well stocked pantry and some herbs or greens you can make any sort of pesto you can possibly dream up.

I make pesto both with a mortar and pestle and with my immersion blender or food processor, depending on the ingredients. Basil for instance is easier to make with a mortar and pestle, while garlic scapes or kale really need to be chopped up in the food processor. Crushing the garlic with the salt first with a mortar and pestle releases the oils, dissolves the salt and gives the texture necessary for a good paste. Then the torn basil leaves can be added and pounded before adding the whole thing to a food processor, this combines a little of the old and new world techniques. But do whatever works for you, there is really no right or wrong way.

Pesto, originally came from Liguria, a small region in the northwest of Italy.The mineral-rich seaside soil of Genoa and the Cinque Terra, combined with temperate climate of Liguria make a perfect environment for growing basil. It is not uncommon to see heaps of basil growing in pots on every stoop and every home and balcony in Liguria. The Ligurians created the classic Pesto alla Genovese using a combination of basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and parmigiano.

In Italian the verb pestare means to pound, or to crush, this is where pesto originally gets it's name.

BASIC BASIL PESTO/ FOOD PROCESSOR WAY

pine nuts

basil leaves

garlic

juice of half a lemon or a lime

olive oil

parmigiano 

sea salt 

fresh ground black pepper

In a cast iron skillet add 2tblsp. of olive oil. Heat and add 1/3 cup of pine nuts, brown until golden.

remove and set aside.

When the pine nuts are cool, add them to your food processor along with 20 or so fresh basil leaves and 1 large clove of garlic add 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Blend until smooth.

Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of parmigiano and a couple more tablespoons of olive oil and the lemon or lime.

Blend until creamy. 

Add more salt and pepper to taste.

MINT AND LEMON BALM PESTO

We always have an abundance of mint and lemonbalm throughout the Summer and into the Fall. We started making an herbed pasta a few years ago and it has now eveolved into a mint pesto. You may find you want to use a smaller garllic clove with this recipie or less of it so it does not overpower the mint. The mint is lovely with sharp contrast of the Pecorino Romano. This pesto has no nuts.

one bunch mint

one bunch lemon balm ( optional, you can make just using the mint)

juice of 1/2 lemon or lime

1 small garlic clove

olive oil

pecorino romano

sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

Add the torn mint and  along with a small clove of garlic and 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil to the food processor.

Blendend until smooth. 

Add the juice of 1/2 lemon or lime depending on your preference.

Add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil,  sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and 1/2 cup of pecorino romano.

Blend again until smooth.

Set aside 1/2 cup of HOT pasta water before draining the pasta. Quickly mix in with the pesto and add the finished pesto to the pasta

SAGE PESTO FROM A TINY RESTURANT IN CATIGNANO, ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF SIENA ITALY

One bunch of sage

One fistfull of parsley

Juice of one lemon or lime

Small handfull of raw almonds About 10

one large clove of garlic

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

pecorino romano (optional)

the key is the pasta water... save at least a 1/2 cup to mix in the pesto.

I made this one in the food processor because the leaves and the almonds were a little tough to pound and crush by hand.

Add the torn sage leaves, parsley and garlic to the food processor along with 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil and blend until smooth. 

Add the juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 more tablespoons of olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper and 1/2 cup of pecorino romano.

Blend again until smooth.

Set aside 1/2 cup of HOT pasta water before draining the pasta. Quickly mix in with the pesto and add the finished pesto to the pasta

OTHER PESTO IDEAS

follow the same simple recipie above substituting the basil for any of the following. You can either use nuts or omit, anything goes.

Nettle pesto

Dandelion green pesto

Mixed herb pesto ( mint, lemon balm, thyme parsley)

Parsley pesto

Ramp pesto

Arugula pesto

Kale pesto

ingredients to have on hand

arugula

sage

ramp (EARLY SPRING)

garlic scapes

mixed herbs/ lemon balm, thyme, mint, parsley, sage, chives, 

nettle

walnuts

almonds

olive oil

a nice grassy olive oil

parmigiano

pecorino romano

pine nuts

garlic

dried chile

parsley

lemons

kale

dandelion greens

fava bean ragout

 

 Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved

 Fava beans are one of the fleeting mid-Summer vegetables that are quite easy to miss. They show up at the market for a short time only. They start appearing in the late Spring and are gone by mid to late July. I was just on the cusp of not finding them this year and may have found the last of them. The Fava bean, sometimes called the Broad Bean is popular in Europe and the Middle East. It has long been a staple in the Mediterranean diet. I was first introduced to the Fava bean as a kid by my grandmother, as Fava Beans and Chicory is a popular Puglian dish. You can find them dried year round in many US. markets. They are a long oversized fuzzy  grean bean and require quite a bit of work to prepare, this may account for thier somewhat obscure status.

When looking for a recipie for the odd or unusual vegetable. I always turn, with out fail, to Alice Waters. One of the cookbooks I cannot live without is Alice Water's Chez Panisse Vegetables. If i were only allowed one book, this is the book I would choose.  I love it because I can look up any seasonal vegetable in the index and go to a complete section of recipies using said vegetable. Today, I chose Fava beans. After two long weeks of work and catering everyday, I really wanted to be in control of my own food choice. I had some fava beans I needed to use from last week's farmers market upstate.

I was a little torn between Fava bean ragout and Fava bean puree but decide to go with the former. I used Alice Waters recipie as my guide and then improvised a bit as I usually do.

I substituted  fresh lemon balm and fresh mint for the rosemary as that is what I had on hand. I sometimes find rosemary to be a bit heavy in the summer.  I used far less beans because I didn't have as many as the recipe called for. I added a little bit of Bhutanese red pepper at the end and lime instead of lemon and some shavings of pecorino.

 

FAVA BEAN RAGOUT FROM ALICE WATER"S CHEZ PANISSE VEGETABLES

3-4lbs of young fava beans

1 large clove of garlic

1 small sprig rosemary

olive oil

salt and pepper

1/2 lemon

Shell the fava beans and discard the pods.

Bring a pot of water to boil, add the fava beans and simmer for 1 minute.

Drain and cool immediately in cold water ( i used an ice bath)

Pierce the outer skin with a thumbnail and squeeze each bean out of it's skin with thumb and forefinger.

 Peel and chop the garlic very fine.

Put the fava beans in a suacepan with a mixture of half water and half olive oil enough to just cover them.

Add the garlic and rosemary and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the beans are tender, 5 minutes or so more or less. finish with a squeeze of lemon and another grind or two of pepper.

This ragout is great over pasta or on toasted crostini.

My improvised version is below.

Fava Bean Ragout

Follow above steps for shelling and cooling

Add shelled peeled fava beans to a large cast iron skillet, cover with 1/2 olive oil 1/2 water until just covered

Add  1 clove of finely chopped garlic and 1/2 cup of finely choped mint and lemon balm

salt to taste 

Simmer for 5 minutes or so or until the beans are tender and some of the liquid has eveaporated

Remove from the heat

Add the juice of 1/2 lime and some red pepper flakes

 If seving with pasta:

transfer to pasta and add some shaved pecorino romano.

For Crostini

Cut a nice crusty loaf of bread into thick slices

Rub each slice with a garlic

Brush with olive oil and toast under the broiler for a minute or until just brown

Add the fava bean ragout add a drizzle of olive oil and a shaving of pecorino.

edgar's roses

When we first bought our old farmhouse in the woods in Upstate New York, I was somewhat disappointed to find that there were no old rose briars on the property. I made it my mission to plant some old species roses. After having grown up in a two hundred year old house in New England, I had grown accustom to overgrown wild old species roses.  We had many varieties from single petal to double bloom in vibrant shades of pinks and whites. I love the way the perfume of a rose hangs heavy on a humid summer day. As luck would have it, there was an abandoned house just up the raod fom us where an eccentric old man named Edgar had lived. In his front yard were the most beautiful double bloom pink roses. They had grown into a wicked pile of bramble, canes, and thorns amidst the blackberry scrub. Very carefully we dug a few plants and trannsfered them to our place... and now after many years Edgar's roses  have grown accustomed to thier new home.We have heard from locals that two women, visiting family at the nearby farmhouse in the late 1800's, brought the roses from England. This past weekend as I walked across the yard the thick spicy bloom of roses hung in the air. 

night anemones

 

Once a year, the mountains of Bovina New York roar with something other than the desolate wind or the pounding rain or like today, the crashing thunder. They echo with a boom, a thud in the night. There in the mountains are most spectacular fireworks one could ever see. Two families host two separate parties that light the night sky like explosions on the sun. I have come many years and photographed these night anemones. Every year they are somehow different from last as are the people who come and the children who run wild tearing through the wet grass with sparklers ablaze behind them. There is a moment of brilliance as it fades away to the palest red or green and then it's gone.

to see a larger gallery of fireworks photos go to http://www.hungryghostfoodandtravel.com/photo-archive/bovina-fireworks/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved

flying fox and sour cherries

I stayed in the city this weekend under the premise of mounds of work.  For the most part  I have been sticking to a rigorous schedule. I did however, let my dear friend Marcia pull me away to the New Amsterdam Market for an hour or so today. We met at 11am sharp in front of Pasanella and Sons, just as the market had opened. I told her we had better make bee line to see Maggie Nesciur at Flying Fox to get some cherries before they were sadly gone. Last time I was the market I showed up too late and all of Maggie's fruit was sold out! She is tucked away in the farthest Northwestern corner of the market. Today, we had no problem as we were early. We did scoop up the last three pints of the most beautiful little strawberries that Maggie had lovingly harvested on a small farm  in Upstate New York. It seemed she was a little meloncholy to see them go as they are the last of the strawberries she will pick this year.  Maggie harvests only by hand, small batch seasonal organic local fruits and berries, and ONLY from small farms. She picks everything by hand and runs a solo operation supplying a few small resturants and now doing the NAM market once a week.

Talk about hard work and dedication. Though it may be an Urban farming myth, I have heard that she even slept in a strawberry field overnight just to be able to give the berries a bit more sun in the morning, before gathering them and heading back to the city. I am kind of fascinated by her.

Maggie began harvesting seasonal tree ripened fruits and berries from small farms in the Northeast region in 2006. She is dedicated to building and maintaing a community through sustainable farming in New York city.

In addition to the strawberries I picked up some some local blackberries and some Hudson Valley sour cherries that I plan on making into jam later tonight.

 MAGGIE"S FRUIT CALENDAR 

JUNE

strawberries

rasberries ( red, yellow, black)

cherries (sweet+sour)

JULY

currants (red, black, white)

blackberries

rasberries

blueberries

gooseberries (green and red)

apricots

sugar plums

nectarines

peaches (yellow, white, donut)

AUGUST

melons

watermelons

blackberries

raspberries (red, yellow)

apricots

sugar plums

nectarines

peaches (yellow, donut)

September +

grapes

pears

cranberries

beach plums

figs

elderberries

raspberries (red , yellow)

pawpaws

apples

peaches (yellow)

CONTACT

Maggie Nesciur

FRUITERER

917-637-9143

maggienes@gmail.com

 Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved