Season by Season | Basil Pesto

	(Serves 4) 4 cups packed fresh basil leaves 1 tablespoon minced garlic Gray salt and freshly ground pepper 1 cup pure olive oil 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted 1/8 teaspoon vitamin C (optional) 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

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Basil Pesto
Pasta with pesto is a good lesson in why Italians so often insist on adding a spoonful of pasta cooking water to pasta sauce. Try it here and you will see how creamy the pesto becomes on the pasta.

Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl, and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the basil in a large sieve and plunge it into the boiling water. Immediately immerse all the basil and stir so that it blanches evenly. Blanch for about 15 seconds. Remove, shake off the excess water, then plunge the basil into the ice water bath and stir again so it cools as fast as possible. Drain well.

Squeeze the water out of the basil with your hands until very dry. Roughly chop the basil and put in a blender. Add the garlic, salt and pepper to taste, olive oil, pine nuts, and the vitamin C, if using. Blend for at least 30 seconds. In this way the green of the basil will thoroughly color the oil. Add the cheese and pulse to combine. The pesto will keep several days in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.



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	Quick Tip: I use pure olive oil for pesto so the clear flavor of the herb dominates. If you want to freeze pesto, omit the nuts and cheese.