Pesto Pete!

Alan takes such good care of our kitchen garden, right outside the door on the edge of our common area. We like the basics – tomatoes – lots of them, zucchini, patty pan summer squash, a few peppers – hot and not, maybe a cucumber and a melon, a few eggplants, and lots and lots of basil for pesto.

Our neighbors in Village Homes introduced us to pesto; it wasn’t a sauce our families made when we were kids. We were hooked when I realized we could make our own lovely pesto with a basic recipe using Parmesan or Romano cheese, packed basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. When the kids were young, I made lots of pesto. They loved it and got me a book of pesto recipes – variations on the theme. I tried a few recipes using cilantro or parsley instead of basil. Pasta and pesto, salad with tomatoes and lovely sourdough French bread made up many of our summer meals.

The November that George W. was reelected I was sick for several weeks – probably not a coincidence. I couldn’t seem to shake the virus and started looking at my diet. I tried a vegan diet that winter and felt better. One of my favorite recipes was for vegan pesto from Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner’s wonderful book “The New Now & Zen Epicure: Gourmet Vegan Recipes for the Enlightened Palate.” (Gorgeous book, great photos, delicious recipes.) Her pesto calls for miso in place of cheese. Miso is that lovely paste made of fermented soybeans, rice or barley. I get it in the refrigerated sections of the grocery store, and prefer the lighter variety. The darker miso is very salty, but the lighter ones are sweeter. Rice is the lightest, barley is generally darker, and soybean miso is the darkest.

Alan was encouraged by the vegan recipe and started experimenting. He tried different kinds of nuts. The worldwide shortage of pine nuts (piñon nuts) helped - as our friend Jaime says, it made the price of traditional pesto as pricey as crack! Alan started drying and cracking the walnuts we picked up in Village Homes. His mother Alice was raised on a farm with a walnut orchard near Corning just off I-5 two hours north of Davis; she used a claw hammer to crack nuts. Her Aunt Helen gave bags of cracked walnuts to the family for presents. Some of them ended up in delicious batches of Alan’s pesto. He also has used pecans and peanuts, and recently had good luck with macadamia nuts, which have the texture of piñon nuts.

Here’s our favorite miso-based pesto. You’d never guess it didn’t have cheese. Fewer calories, no dairy, and absolutely delicious. I’m also including Alan’s recipe for hot pepper pesto for our friends with lots of peppers to harvest.

Bon appétit!



Vegan Pesto Sauce

From “The New Now & Zen Epicure: Gourmet Vegan Recipes for the Enlightened Palate” by Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner

Yield: 2 cups

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2-4 cloves garlic
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 cup extra virgin olive oil [Note: We use LESS oil—between ½ and 2/3 cup]
2 tablespoons light miso
[Sometimes I add fresh lemon juice to the leaves to help them keep their color]

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until a thick green sauce is produced, but leave a little texture. Store refrigerated in a jar with a coating of olive oil on top to keep the sauce from discoloring [we usually use it up! Haven’t found the need for oil on top…].

Per tablespoon: Calories: 75, Protein .5 g, Fat 8 g, Carbohydrates .5

Use over pasta or add to soup, tomato sauce or pizza; extend with vinegar as a salad dressing, or just spread on bread. Keeps for several weeks refrigerated, or can be frozen.

AJ’s Basil Pesto

3 cups basil leaves
4 cloves garlic
½ cup nuts – piñon, walnuts, macadamia nuts or peanuts
1 cup (or less) olive oil
3 tablespoons light miso

AJ’s Hot Pepper Pesto (aka, “Hot Sh*t”)

“I make this in the food processor after making basil pesto (without cleaning),” says Alan.

1 - 1½ cup jalapeños or other chili peppers, stems cut off
4 cloves garlic
½ cup nuts
½ - 1 cup olive oil – to right consistency
3 tablespoons light miso