Pesto In a Mortar and Pestle
My parents never bought into the idea of a food processor with its spinning blade whipping and chopping whatever was in the bowl. As a kid, I thought it was the latest and greatest of kitchen gadgets and wanted them to get one. Moving out with my girlfriend, we ended up getting one from a warehouse sale of a catalogue photograph company unloading their wares.
We use it but with the age of the internet upon us and digital photos and videos, the stuff I made in that food processor looked pale compared to what others were manually making by chopping and grinding.
Pesto is no exception and does extremely well… Far better in a mortar and pestle than in a food processor.
Quick and simple with a good heavy one, here’s my process.
And that is it.
As far as quantity of ingredients go, there really isn’t any in mine. Same rules of thumb apply as far as knowing what each ingredient tastes like and adjusting to taste.
- Garlic
- Pine nuts (can be toasted)
- Large crystal salt (kosher, sea salt, etc)
- Italian basil leaves
- Parmesan cheese grated
- Olive oil
