I grew up in more of a meat and potatoes family, so pesto never found itself on our dinner menu. Instead, spaghetti and lasagna were my main experiences with Italian food. The opportunity to expand my palette came when I first traveled to mainland Europe. It was when we stopped at the Cinque Terre, a region known to be the birthplace of pesto, that I had my first taste of the sauce at a little family owned cafe in Vernazza, Italy.
I am now so excited to be making my own pesto with basil from our garden! Our plants grew so well, we were able to freeze multiple batches. I can't wait to enjoy homemade pesto through the winter!
You can't go wrong with most of the pesto recipes you'll find online. I used one from Simply Recipes. For the pasta dish, combine your favorite cooked pasta noodle, pesto sauce, parmesan cheese, and Italian sausage (Trader Joe's has a delicious sweet Italian style chicken sausage). Pour yourself a glass of white wine and your meal is complete! Enjoy!
Love this post! It's so great you can pinpoint your first pesto experience. I didn't grow up with it either but I'm pretty sure my first tasting was something like panera (not cinque terre)
ReplyDeleteHa! :)
DeleteYum! I love pesto! And I'm really impressed by how much basil you had to work with - and it looks so healthy!
ReplyDeleteFantastic! I've only made pesto once and somehow managed to ruin it. Now I'm inspired to give it another try.
ReplyDeleteYes! You MUST try again! It's totally worth experimenting until you get something you like! :)
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