Making Pesto

3Q, I’ve never attempted to make pesto in my life, that last bit of walnut/cilantro pesto, at my xmas party, was self-imported from California. God, if they opened a Trader Joe’s in Taipei we’d all be in heaven…sorry to those who don’t know this organic supermarket chain, but it’s wicked!

Maybe you’d like to impart your pesto recipe 3Q. I can make some mean hummus, but grinding up pinenuts and basil…um…needs a food processor.

Ok, Alien just for you… if you swing the hummous one through? I am sick of having to stock up on trips to HK.

Pine nuts - toasted of course
Garlic
Fresh basil leaves
Grated Parmesan cheese - fresh of course
Lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil

Drop pine nuts and garlic into mortar and pesil (sp???) until soggy but not minced. Add basil, cheese and lemon juice; process until mixed.

Dribble in oil through until well mixed or your are happy!

TIP - try lime juice

You can buy frozen premade pesto sauce at this restaurant… It’s close to Hoping East Road and Keelung South Road. A pack serves 4 and goes for about $130.

Tang Tang Vegetarian Foods
2 Lo Li Road, Lane 42
2732-1243, 2378-4358
Chinese, Japanese, Take-out
Webmaster’s Pick! Excellent & healthy food! No MSG! Organic as much as possible. Tang Tang also sells ready made food products and other healthy products. She has published 3 beautiful cookbooks (but only in Chinese). They also offer cooking classes.

No need to buy Pesto!

3 cups or 2 giant handfuls of Basil leaves (take the stems off)
1/2 cup of toasted Walnuts (easier than pine nuts to find)
4 cloves of Garlic
1/2 cup Parmesian Cheese
1/2 cup Olive Oil
squeeze a quarter of a lemon

Put everything into a blender and turn the thing on!
If you like it thinner add more oil, if you like more garlic, add more. Just do your own thing! I always make a batch and put them in ice cube trays and freeze for later. To prevent freezer burn put some cling wrap over the pesto before refrigerating. :slight_smile:

don’t think you’ll have too much trouble at a traditional market or rice shop. just saw some today in fact.

don’t think you’ll have too much trouble at a traditional market or rice shop. just saw some today in fact.[/quote]
Big bags of pine nuts for sale at Costco too.

I like adding some chopped up sun-dried tomato to pesto or kalamata olives.

A great way to freeze/store pesto is to slap it into an (oiled) ice cube tray once you have finished making it. (be sure to cover and bag the ice cube tray to prevent freezer burn). Once the pesto is frozen - you have perfect little individual servings of pesto. You can take them out of the tray and store in a bag in your freezer once frozen or keep them in the tray and just pop them out as needed. My mother’s freezer is FULL :shock: of these weird little green ice cubes. Every summer she spends one or two full days making pesto with her basil crop and we get to enjoy it year round.

A great bistro right behind the bowling alley @ Dunhua and Civic called “VVG” has a pesto and fresh bread that I drive all the way from Hsichi to indulge in. You can buy it by the jar for a reasonable price (forget what that reasonable price is though). They seem to make their bread just for the pesto. Great rack of lamb as well. The stuff from Costco is alright too but I prefer the bistro’s. Even though Costco is 5 minutes down the street

I always have pesto on hand even here. The basil is very different here but hey it is cheep cheep. I just made a batch with roasted organic sesame seeds and it is very yummy. Cheep and yummy.