What Ever Happened to Pesto?

For those of us who were old enough to remember and have since forgotten and for those who were too young to notice, there once was a thick, dark green, luscious sauce gracing the plates of the chicest new restaurants in New York City. Scarcely a menue existed that did not have at least one or more offering of this flavor-rich addition to the fare. Tiny bits of minced garlic and pine nuts melded with chopped basil and pungent, grated parmesan cheese in lush olive oil to add distinction to the simplest servings of pasta. The lushest sauce of the hottest new restaurants then?—pesto!

The origin of the sauce we know today as pesto dates back to ancient Rome and was later refined in Genoa Italy. In New York City, during the late nineteen eighties pesto’s popularity grew to culinary acclaim. From the neighborhood coffee shop to the finest of restaurants, there was a pesto dish on everyone’s menu. Over time though, pesto has lost favor to today’s overwhelming assortment of herbs and spices in recipes. The mouth-watering pleasure of pesto is in its simplicity. It consists of five basic ingredients; fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Together they come together to produce a nutty, rich taste sensation to enhance otherwise less flavorful food. Frequently served over pasta or as sauce for pizza it is also a welcomed addition to broiled fish, grilled chicken breast or add a dollop to bowl of hearty minestrone soup for more savory richness.

Originally, pesto was prepared in a marble mortar by crushing the dry ingredients with a wooden pestle by hand. Today, a simpler, easier and equally satisfactory method is with a food processor. Finely chop the fresh basil, pine nuts, and garlic in a food processor separately; combine the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add the grated parmesan cheese, mix thoroughly and then slowly pour in the olive oil while constantly stirring the mixture to achieve a smooth, thick texture.

Here are the proportions for the basic ingredients. As with any recipe, adjust the amounts of each ingredient to your personal taste preference or add an interesting new ingredient such as sun dried tomatoes for a hint of sweetness or substitute the parmesan cheese with a more pungent Grand Padano cheese.

2 cups fresh basil, closely packed
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons pine nuts
3 cloves garlic

Pesto is quick and easy to prepare, getting richer and tastier as it sits in the refrigerator waiting to titillate your palate. One of my favorite ways to enjoy pesto is by adding a spoonful on top of a golden brown omelet or spread it over a piece of toasted ciabatta bread accompanied by a glass of Soave or Vinho Verdi. Enjoy!

A Proustian Pizza Memory from the Grill

Savoring pizza cooked on an outdoor grill is an uncommon taste experience with singular rewards. The hot charcoal briquettes or lava rocks add enticing, smoke-filled aromatics to the pie that conventional kitchen ovens cannot duplicate. The taste of the crunchy piecrust, topped with bubbling hot, melted cheese is wistfully reminiscent of the pizza served fresh out of the brick ovens from my bygone New York City neighborhood pizzerias. It is a Proustian Memory from my youth that I still relish with each morsel of pizza made on a grill.

One of the fundamental steps to successfully cooking pizza on an outdoor grill is bringing the temperature of the pizza stone, an essential tool, to the same temperature of the grill’s cooking chamber. The hot pizza stone sears the outside of the piecrust for a memorable, crispy and crunchy homemade pizza. The other equally important practice is elevating the stone from the grate, about two to three inches, with a metal vegetable basket or some other similar device that will not block the heat from the pizza stone. Elevating the stone in this manner places the uncooked pizza in the higher and hotter area of the cooking chamber to melt the cheese in the same amount of time necessary to cook the thin pizza dough.

The rest is easy; preheat the cooking chamber to 450° with the pizza stone in place, in order for the stone to reach the same temperature as the cooking chamber, slide the pizza with your favorite toppings onto the stone using a pizza peel. Close the cover to the grill and cook until finished. Randy Wade, the owner of Tumacookery in Tubac Arizona and my grilling guru, recommends a wooden pizza peel for this. When your piping hot, fresh made pizza is ready, slip a metal pizza peel underneath the crust, remove and enjoy! Following these simple steps will ensure a perfectly cooked pizza every time and—the creation your own Proustian Pizza Memory.

Randy Wade’s Signature Vegetarian Pizza Topping

Spread two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and two tablespoons of a balsamic vinegar reduction, or an equal amount of both, sufficient to cover the pie dough. Then add chopped arugula greens, a sprinkling of raw pecans and dried cranberries; the proportions of theses ingredient are to individual taste preferences; start with a quarter cup of each and adjust their amounts and proportions on your next pizza or pizzas. Finish the topping with thinly shaved slices of tangy Manchego cheese, sufficiently spaced for each slice to have its own shaving of cheese.

This no-fuss, easy to prepare combination of sweet and savory flavors elevates an ordinary pizza into a gourmet treat. Try a glass or two of Pinot Grigio by Cavit or a Soave by Inama; both are inexpensive Italian white wines that harmonize perfectly with the taste sensations of Randy’s vegetarian pizza.