'But' I stammer to the chef, waiting for him to scream at me to hurry up and take out the fucking platter (you know what chefs are like) '.....It’s not green or made of basil?’
Chef looks at me like I’m an idiot. He’s probably right, at that point – I’m only like 16. I didn’t know you could break recipe rules. He explains to me that ‘pesto’ means to ‘pound’ or ‘crush’. What a revelation.
So this idea has been the basis of my pesto life – if it’s got some kind of nut in it and some olive oil and some kind of sharpish cheese, it’s a pesto.
Another revelation came from growing my own garlic, which you can read about in my last steem post – I found out that the long flower stalks are edible and called scapes, and are amazing sautéed in butter, sliced thinly into eggs or used like spring onions or garlic chives. They are also damn pretty.
Scape and Kale Pesto
3 – 4 garlic scapes, flower heads removed
6 – 8 kale leaves, stalks removed
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup parmesan cheese
A cup cashews or pine nuts
Whizz it up and serve on top of minestrone soup, in pasta or like pictured, on sourdough bread.
If you would like a really easy recipe for sourdough, check out this post where I run through a dead easy recipe.
What kind of crazy non – trad, anarchic pestos have you made?
