Pistou is Provençal for pounded.
Pestare means “to pound or crush“ in Italian.
Hence--pestle–the pounder part of a pestle and mortar.
Pesto is a basil-based sauce and a wonder for summer.
Lovely and garlicky, it’s a quick sauce for pasta and good to drizzle on grilled vegetables.
It can also be stirred into a soup of young vegetables.
This recipe makes a decent amount.
100 g/4 oz basil leaves
4 cloves of garlic – crushed
25 g/1 oz pine nuts – optional
10 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
100 g/4 oz Parmesan cheese – grated
- Put the basil, garlic and pine nuts in a processor.
- Whizz, adding the oil until you have a smoothish sauce.
- Season and transfer to a bowl.
- Fold in the Parmesan and taste. Add more if you feel it needs it.
I’d bought three good bunches of basil at Castres market early Saturday morning–for 1 euro each.
I made the sauce in the afternoon, so just had to boil the wholewheat spagettini and hey presto!
Pesto pasta for dinner last night.
Summer’s here we thought–then it started raining…!
Robin Ellis 
Hello Robin I really look forward to reading your recipes and comtents of the day.
Not only are you a very fine actor & creative cook but a linguist.I love pesto so this will be on my to do list this week with pasta.Jimmy will also like this dish..
I have to confess that I am not very good with languages I can just about get by with french if I can get my head round what I want to say before I speak, but I have learnt far more reading your very interesting and enteraining blog than I have anywhere esle. Thank you so much. Best wishes to you both – Elaine.
Hello Robin I really look forward to reading your recipes and comments of the day.
Not only are you a very fine actor & creative cook but a linguist.I love pesto so this will be on my to do list this week with pasta.Jimmy will also like this dish..
I have to confess that I am not very good with languages I can just about get by with french if I can get my head round what I want to say before I speak, but I have learnt far more reading your very interesting and enteraining blog than I have anywhere esle. Thank you so much. Best wishes to you both – Elaine.
Thanks, Elaine.
Languages not my strong point!–our friends round here are pretty tolerant fortunately!
Hello Robin, this is a recipe that never fails in our family, good enough to have fresh basil …. and even better advice linguine instead of spaghetti and pasta in the cooking of the potatoes into pieces!!
a kiss!
Down in the cold and damp South Island of NZ, the best we can manage is to grow a couple of basil plants in the conservatory. Never get enough leaves to make a full batch of pesto, but adding parsley or rocket makes a very acceptable substitute. Really enjoying your blog, Robin.
WOW–you are a ways away yet almost instantly present–it is a time to be living!
Thanks, Suzanne–and good substitutes too. What about your summer–doesn’t the weather change to ripen all those grapes?
Robin,
Didn’t you mean Hey PESTO!!…
I cannot believe you have lived in France for 20 years and are not fluent in the language.
A lovely quick recipe for this time of year, thank you.
Creaky fluent I would say, Sophie-Jane–depends to whom I’m talking.
Ca depend avec qui je suis en train de parler!
Grapes grow and ripen happily in the north and central regions of the South Island, but not in Dunedin. It has what is euphemistically called a “Maritime” climate, which means cold, damp and changeable. Strangely enough, the Scots immigrants who first settled this area thought the weather clement enough to build many uninsulated wooden houses, most of which still stand, and are heated with nothing but woodfires. It’s a tough life… 🙂
In the last years, here in Italy, new fashion for Pesto. Add at the sauce little slices of fresh tomatoes, red pepper and enjoy!!!
I made your wonderful pesto last week and had some left over. I mixed about dessert spoon of it in a cup of mayonnaise for the dressing on a potato salad I prepared. EXCELLENT!!!