Pesto alla Genovese (Basil, garlic and cheese sauce)

From: "Recipes: The Cooking of Italy." New York: Time-Life Books, 1968.

It's basil season! Just when you think you can't eat any more of whatever was last in season, along comes the next great item. Right now, for me, it's basil. I can get armfuls of basil at the farmers market for less than $5, so I'm making every recipe that contains basil and freezing what I can.

Remember Bubba from "Forrest Gump"? He listed every possible shrimp recipe imaginable as he and Forrest went through basic training. I could probably do that with basil recipes.

This little cookbooklet only has one basil recipe, but it's the best recipe for pesto I've found. The cookbooklet is a keeper, too. The recipes create very fresh tasting Italian food and make me think I can master international cuisine (i.e. they're easy).

This pesto recipe will not disappoint you. It's basic, doesn't get fancy with the ingredients (not that there's anything wrong with that) and it freezes like a dream. You can either spoon a portion into a Ziploc freezer bag, fill an ice tray with pesto and bag the cubes after they're frozen or use your favorite freezer container. I've been happy with frozen pesto well into a cold Indiana winter.

This recipe makes about 2 cups.

2 cups fresh basil leaves, stripped from their stems, coarsely chopped [I used a food processor] and tightly packed
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic [I throw that in the food processor, too]
2 tablespoons finely chopped pine nuts [you guessed it, the food processor]
1 to 1 1/2 cups olive oil [start with less - too much will negatively affect taste]
1/2 cup freshly grated imported sardo, romano or Parmesan cheese

Combine the coarsely chopped fresh basil, salt, pepper, garlic, pine nuts and 1 cup of olive oil in a blender jar. Blend at high speed until the ingredients are smooth, stopping the blender every 5 or 6 seconds to push the herbs down with a rubber spatula.

The sauce should be thin enough to run off the spatula easily. If it seems too thick, blend in as much as 1/2 cup more olive oil. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and stir in the grated cheese.