Don’t have a food processor, well that is alright by me, because I didn’t need one. After finding a recipe online for an Italian Grilled Cheese, which consisted of making your own pesto, I was determined to do just that. Over the week I slowly gathered the ingredients the blog post told me to get.
This is what I got:
- 3/4 Cup Basil Leaves
- 1/4 Cup Oregano Leaves
- 2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1/4 Cup Walnuts
- 1 clove of Garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Finally I decided I am going to make this pesto and it is going to be good, then I hit the speed bump. Recipe calls for putting all this stuff in the food processor and blending it. That was it, only problem being, I didn’t have a food processor and I didn’t want to go by one. Come to think of it though, there are other things i could use one for, but I digress. I wasn’t going to give up though, I Googled around to see if anyone had written about making pesto without a processor, sure enough I found someone who had. It isn’t overly complicated to figure out how to do, but I wanted to confirm.
What I had to do was chop everything, finely. As finely as I possible could and as I did that mix it as much as I could in a bowl. I rotated through ingredients to make sure the pesto was being mixed properly, or it gave me the reinsurance it was. While mixing in the ingredients I was also adding in parts of the olive oil to moisten up the mix. Finally once all the ingredients were in the small bowl I once again beat the living crap out of it to make sure it was mixed and also crushed up enough.
At this point I proceeded to taste test it. It actually turned out pretty good. I did find though that it was rather garlicy, as well as salty. I would cut back on both of those next time.
I wasn’t done yet though. I smeared the pesto on a slice of bread with thick sliced of mozzarella cheese and baby tomatoes and threw it all in a frying pan to grill. By the way, if you also happen to have a Jamie Oliver fry pan like I do, be warned when you heat them up, they retain heat very well. I nearly burnt one side of my sandwich.
Of course then the only other thing to do is enjoy it… or clean up the mess you made.
Actually, I just read on a blog that the reason pesto tastes so much better in Italy is because it’s not all mashed up into one big, well, mashup-by-processor there, but rather, done by hand like you did, which helps keep the flavour a bit separate (and thus more interesting). I hadn’t thought to add oregano so I’ll give that a try this weekend when I make another batch.
That sandwich looks amazing! Glad the pesto turned out.
Looks delicious! Might have to try that.