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Caption: Cashew Basil
Pesto
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Caption: Otherwise known as "How to
almost destroy your basil plant".
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Caption: I've been trying really hard
to keep my basil plant alive and well.
I generally have a pretty bad track record when it comes to taking care of plants.
Why is it so hard to remember to water
something daily?
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Caption: This time, I decided I would take the time to care of my basil plant. Every morning for the past month I've been placing it on the windowsill with plenty of sunlight and no bugs or outside dust. I water it every morning and clean out the browned leaves.
At night, I take it off the windowsill to close the blinds and repeat the next morning.
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Caption: It was thriving really, really well until I decided to make pesto.
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Caption: Good-bye almost all of the plant. It looks so sad now.
I won't grace you with a photo of my Charlie Brown Christmas tree-like basil plant.
I'm crossing my fingers that I can resuscitate it and not let another basil plant die on me.
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Caption: But in the meantime...pesto!
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Caption: I based this pesto off of
a recipe from my favorite Italian cook, Lidia Bastianich
But, I made some tweaks to her Classic Pesto recipe to use cashews instead of pine nuts because there are more uses for cashews and reduced the cheese to just parmesan.
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Caption: Cashew Basil Pesto Yields: about 3/4 cup
Time: 10 - 15 minutes
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Caption: Ingredients:
4 cups loosely packed
fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3 tablespoons toasted cashews
1/4 cup freshly grated
Parmesan cheese
pinch of salt
3 - 4 tablespoons olive oil.
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Caption: The steps:
1. Blend basil leaves, salt, and garlic in the food processor with 2 tablespoons of olive oil until a course paste is formed.
2. Add the pine nuts and the remaining olive oil. Blend until the pine nuts are finely ground.
3. Stir in the grated parmesan cheese until
a creamy paste forms.
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Caption: Store in the fridge for a
week or in the freezer
for several months.
The same food processor method can be applied to
a mortar and pestle.
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Caption: Done before Lidia has even moved onto her second recipe of the show.
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Caption: View full recipe and post at:
http://kneadbakecook.com/blog/2015/10/12/lets-talk-cashew-basil-pesto
kneadbakecook.com
instagram.com/karablakechin
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