I only discovered pesto sauce in University - there was this pasta place along Taft Avenue (Manila) that had really good pasta. My friend recommended the one with pesto sauce and chicken. It was so good that it remained to be the only thing I ordered whenever I went there. After those University years, I never had pesto sauce again (I guess I just never craved it). While in Iran this year, I found lots of parsley at home and you can guess what happened next. I googled for ideas. What came up? Pesto Sauce! The ingredients were already available at home and it looked really easy to make - parsley (although most recipes call for basic leaves), olive oil, nuts (most/well almost all recipes call for pine nuts but I had no idea what that was, and we had looooots of walnuts at home, so hey why not?), garlic and cheese (so many cheese with fancy names, I couldn't be bothered. I just used grated cheddar). So I put all these in the food processor and I had it! Well, I had to keep pouring in olive oil little by little because the blend was just too thick (I'm really a measurement-free cook; the kitchen seems to be the only place I rebel).
When I proudly sent photos to my parents of my first pesto sauce, neither of them knew what it was! Perhaps it's just not popular? Can't blame them - I only discovered it a few years ago. The first thing I did with the sauce was use it as a spread. I brought out an old baguette from the freezer, made little slices and french toasted away! (french toast - bread soaked in beaten egg, then fried in a pan with a little butter).
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| Step 1 - french toast; Step 2 - feta cheese; Step 3 - pesto sauce; Step 4 - tomato; Step 5 - bon appetite! |
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| this was the plate arrangement for my instagram post |
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| then this was the journey to my belly! |
A few days later, I brought out the remaining pesto and mixed it with pasta and canned tuna chunks! Voilá! There's so much happiness/satisfaction in making a dish that you've enjoyed eating for years - for the first time! Note to self: learn how to make carbonara sauce.
