Search:

Pesto from the sweet, spicy basil

Kitchen Korner
Marian Platt

Now’s the time to harvest that abundant fresh basil in your garden and to make a flavorful pesto.
If you are not growing any yourself, you can buy bunches of it at our farm markets. And it can be purchased already made in your local market.
Sweet basil is a fine herb, with a clove-like spicy tang that gives it
great popularity. I grow little clay pots of it on my windowsill all year long.
Basil has been a kitchen garden herb for centuries. It is native to India, Asia and Africa, and began its career about 5,000 years ago as a sacred herb rather than a culinary one.
It once was used for “strewing” floors to keep them sweet and clean and for chasing away witches and flies and headaches. In Italy, it is a symbol of love and fidelity. In India, Hindus buried their dead with a leaf on their chests to protect them from evil. Greeks and Romans believed the only way to get a good crop was to curse the ground while sowing the seeds.
Most of us who grow our own
basil today find much of the happiness is in making pesto. To make 1 cup, process 2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves with ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese, ½ cup pine nuts, toasted, ½ cup olive oil, 3 large garlic cloves and one-eighth teaspoon salt in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Store pesto in refrigerator up to five days.
To freeze pesto, put into an ice
cube tray (2 tablespoons per cube); cover with plastic wrap. Freeze overnight, then transfer cubes to a resealable plastic bag; keep up to six months. Defrost pesto at room temperature, about 20 minutes. Mash with a fork before using in recipes.
When you plan on freezing pesto, cook the basil briefly in salted water before mixing with the other ingredients; this will preserve its bright color and fresh taste. By freezing some pesto, you’ll be able to add a summer flavor to all sorts of dishes.
Basil is fragile and its leaves bruise easily so they should be torn rather than chopped when used for salads. Over-cooking spoils its flavor, so add it toward the end of a dish’s cooking time.

A favorite lunch of mine is:
BRUSCHETTA WITH GOAT CHEESE, ROASTED PEPPER
AND BASIL
Spread 4 ounces goat cheese on
four thick slices country bread, halved and toasted. Top with charred red pepper slices, place on baking sheet. Bake in 375-degree oven until warm, about
5 minutes. Top each toast with two basil leaves and serve to four.
BASIL-ARUGULA PESTO
¾ cup olive oil
3 cups (loosely packed) fresh basil leaves
1 cup (loosely packed) fresh arugula
½ cup grated Romano cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
Place ½ cup oil and next six ingredients in processor; process to thick paste. With motor running, add remaining ¼ cup oil and 2 tablespoons warm water. Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Toss this with 1½ pounds of your favorite pasta.
So many ways to add that summer flavor to foods:
PESTO SALMON
Place salmon fillets on baking sheet; spread with pesto, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bake at 400-degrees for about 20 minutes.
ROASTED BROCCOLI
WITH PESTO
Toss 2½ pounds broccoli florets with 2 tablespoons olive oil and spread in an even layer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Roast the broccoli in a 500-degree oven for 8 minutes or until broccoli is browned and crisp-tender. Transfer broccoli to a platter, drizzle pesto on top.
GRILLED VEGETABLES
WITH PESTO
Cut two medium-size yellow squash and two medium zucchini lengthwise into ¼-inch thick slices. Cut 1 red bell pepper into ½-inch thick strips. Grill vegetables 2-3 minutes on each side.
Toss with 3 tablespoons pesto; sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately.
PESTO BLTs
In a small bowl combine 2 tablespoons mayonnaise with 1 tablespoon pesto and dash pepper.
Spread evenly over one side of four slices of whole wheat bread, toasted. On two slices, layer two slices Havarti cheese, two  bacon strips, cooked and halved, two lettuce leaves and four slices tomato; top with remaining toast. Serves two.

TOMATO-BASIL SOUP
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
1 large russet potato, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 pounds plum tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 6 cups)
3 cups water (maybe more)
1 cup (loosely packed) fresh basil leaves, plus 4 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
Heat oil in pot over medium heat; add onions and sauté until golden, about 15 minutes. Add potato and sauté until light brown, about 10 minutes.
Add tomatoes and stir until juices form, about 5 minutes. Add 3 cups water; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until potato is tender, about 25 minutes.
Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return soup to pot. Add water to thin if necessary. Stir in 1 cup basil leaves; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Ladle soup into four bowls; sprinkle each with 2 teaspoons chopped basil.
Basil has so many uses. Here’s one more: To curb a woman’s appetite for food, place a sprig of basil under her plate without her knowledge.
Copyright. Marian Platt,
Sequim. 2009. Reach Marian Platt at mlplatt@olypen.com.



---

The ultimate athlete

In Vetrospect
Jack Thornton

Strength. Speed. Agility. Flexibility. Concentration. These are some characteristics often associated with ultimate athletic performance. But the foundation of all athletic qualities is durability. Upon endurance these attributes may come to fruition. This story is about toughness.

Late afternoon March 14, 1981, a passerby brought in a strange-looking pigeon that he picked up sitting on the edge of the Old Olympic Highway near my clinic. The bird looked alert and made no attempt to escape capture, prompting the man to describe it as seemingly “out of gas.”

Upon examination, the pigeon showed no signs of injury. Its breast musculature was modestly concave, suggesting some degree of malnutrition and/or dehydration. The bird was a brownish-tan color with an unusual purplish cere resembling no wild or domestic variety with which I was familiar.

On one leg were two bands, one silver with several numbers and the other red and white with oriental letters. I rehydrated the patient with injectable fluids and took it to a local pigeon fancier named Alice Stoican.

She housed and fed the bird and within two or three days it was flying and acting normally within its avian enclosure. She next took the information from the bands and with some research determined our foundling to be a racing pigeon released during a competition along the coast of southern Japan on March 10.

The amazed owner speculated the bird had been swept offshore by prevailing trade winds and, instead of fighting, it went with the flow to fly presumable nonstop across the Pacific Ocean.

A direct airline flight from Seattle to Tokyo, Japan, is 4,776 miles. The point of the bird’s release was about 200 miles south of Tokyo while Sequim is less than 100 miles from Seattle, as the pigeon flies. So our avian wonder flew about 4,500 miles in approximately four days. That averages more than 1,000 miles daily or about 50 mph. Since a pigeon’s top flight is roughly 30 mph, it is obvious our athlete’s performance was wind-aided.

Surprisingly, this was not the first racing pigeon recovered in our area from Japan.

About one year earlier a similar incident was documented and given considerable press in our local newspapers. So this particular pigeon did not receive the notoriety it surely deserved.

However, more than 25 years later, these remain the only two such incidents of which I’m aware. Besides being strong and durable, there may be another important aspect to any athlete’s success. A little luck never hurts. 

Dr. Jack Thornton is a semiretired veterinarian. Reach him in care of editor@sequimgazette.com.

              

To subscribe
call 683-3311