Pesto! From my mortar/pestle.

[boomchakabowwow]

Whoa! It’s vastly different. I’ve only really eaten store bought stuff until now. A friend gave me fresh picked stuff straight from her garden. I was ready when she dropped it off. I crushed the ingredients with my virgin mortar and pestle. Man, what a difference. For starters, it isn’t cheese heavy.

It wasn’t that much work at all!

 

[rstl87]

Yum! Definitely tastes better pounded vs shredded in a food processor. May need to follow suit and make a batch soon

 

[HRC_64]

definitely better ! if you use a blender or provessor it releases alot of water. I find the mortar/pestle as you mention in the OP has more body without the fillers relied on as much. You can also use walnuts to make a more economical/simple pesto for casual consumption, and just do it by taste in the mortar/pestle and works pretty good.

 

[DDPslice]

definitely better ! if you use a blender or provessor it releases alot of water. I find the mortar/pestle as you mention in the OP has more body without the fillers relied on as much. You can also use walnuts to make a more economical/simple pesto for casual consumption, and just do it by taste in the mortar/pestle and works pretty good.

Agree, I've substituted pistachios for walnuts and have had equally delicious results.

 

[rstl87]

If you haven’t seen Salt Fat Heat Acid (or whatever the order is) on netflix, they make pesto in the first episode and it looks heavenly.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/magazine/pesto-italy-mortar-pestle.html

 

[WildBoar]

Made a batch last night from the last of the basil. No more fresh pesto this year, but we have a couple dozen batches in the freezer we made in August - October. The plants were already about done yesterday afternoon, but a frost overnight removed any doubt.

Since we made so much this year we switched from pine nuts to walnuts. I thought about using pistachios last night, and now regret not giving it a try.

Next year we'll try making some using mortar/ pestle instead of the processor.

 

[DDPslice]

I wonder if one could file or full down an extra food processor blade to be more blunt? Two birds one stone

Pine nuts I've done rarely but since they are so expensive and I'm so cheap we rarely meet.

Do you toast the nuts in general before?

 

[WildBoar]

We toast. Unless we forget, and it's all ready to blend and mix with the pasta. Toasting definitely makes the pesto taste better IMO.

 

[Kippington]

I wonder if one could file or full down an extra food processor blade to be more blunt? Two birds one stone

Just throw your mortar and pestle into the blender!

 

[DDPslice]

Just throw your mortar and pestle into the blender!

But then do you sieve to strain? How do you get the bits out? What kind of mortar and pestle do you recommend, wood or marble?

 

[Keith Sinclair]

Yes toast the seeds we used a blender at work.

Straight Razors, I use a DE, Grind my coffee beans with a hand crank grinder every morning, all because of this forum. Looked at Mortar & Pestle have not purchased one yet. Have seen used ones cheap at the swap meet