Thursday, July 17, 2008

Pesto Sauce made with Fromage Fort

Had a ridiculous amount of leftover basil from the ratatouille and leftover fromage fort, so I said pesto makes sense to me. This was definitely the best pesto sauce I've ever had any where. The fromage fort adds an intense cheese flavor to the pesto which is surprisingly very, very good. The pesto was uber juicy (the key to most pastas) without being watery. Add that to perfectly cooked chewy (al dente) pasta and I'm definitely happy happy.

Ingredients (all are guesses, since I never measure)
3 cups basil
1 1/2 cup Grated Refrigerated Fromage Fort(recipe here)
1 cup toasted Pine Nuts (cook pine nuts over medium heat with no oil in a pan for one minute)
1-2 garlic cloves
2 cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup pasta water
1/2 box penne (preferably De Cecco)
Salt and pepper

1) In a food processor (or pestle and mortar), add the garlic cloves and pine nuts and pulse a couple times until everything is relatively fine. Avoid the temptation of adding loads of garlic cloves, since that overpowers everything else. Scrape down the bowl and pulse some more. Add the basil and fromage fort, drizzle in a little olive oil and pulse until completely combined. You may need to add more olive oil and repulse until you get get a relatively loose consistency (maybe one cup of oil total). Add salt and pepper, repulse and taste. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Deposit pesto in a large bowl.
2) Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a large handful of salt and cook the pasta till perfectly al dente - 15 seconds of the recommended cooking time, maybe like 9 minutes. Make sure to reserve at least 1/2 cup of pasta water.
3) Remove pasta from the pot, add to the pesto and stir together. The pesto sauce will be a little tight, so add some pasta cooking water and stir some more. The key here is again to get the pasta juicy without it being watery - you will notice that the pasta will be a little shiny. Add a little bit at first, since you can always add more later. You know if you've added too much water if you see any excess water at the bottom of the bowl. Unlike most pasta sauces, pestos are never cooked in the pan - cooking definitely mellows out the flavor too much. Buono Appetito!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

that sounds extremely flavorful.
(mouth watering)
i want some of that pesto on my hamburger.