Top 10 Cooking Tips & Secret Recipe for Pasta al Pesto Top 10 Cooking Tips & Secret Recipe for Pasta al Pesto
By The Frugal Yauch from Grand Royal Magazine #1
To quote Dave Scilken, "the secret to a good omelette is a hot pan." You also need to have your tools together-at least one very sharp knife. None of these bullshit dull knives.
Kind of like Ginzu?
No, no bullshit. Like David said, you need a hot pan, and that pan should preferably be cast iron and well seasoned (which means you should NEVER wash it with soap). Next up you need good ingredients. Everything you put in counts. No bullshit.
By Bullshit you Mean?
That's it. Period.
What Else?
You need a good area to cook in. A nice atmosphere is nice.
What's your favorite dish?
I don't have a favorite dish.
What have you been cooking lately?
I haven't been cooking lately, I've been traveling for about a year now, like David Banner
Are you eager to get back to cooking?
You have to make something that's appropriate for the occasion. No bullshit.
Adam, you're going to have to be more specific
No, I'm not.
So I guess that's it?
Actually, you know what? I changed my mind. I'd like to take back my snott, elitist cooking tips and tell you a little story.
OK
When I was growing up, my dad was always in the kitchen cooking. He picked it up from his mother, Jean Yauch, who is also a great cook, and she from her mother. I've even heard that my grandmother's grandmother, a mother of nine, was renowned for her culinary skills. So in any case, I grew up around a lot of good food, much of which I didn't appreciate at the time. My dad dubbed me a "Pizzatarian", but in the end I did learn a lot about cooking, mainly that it's just a lot of fun and the food almost always tastes better than eating out. So here I present a recipe I got from my dad, that's past due in its publishing.
PASTA AL PESTO
Ingredients: 2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 or 3 cloves chopped garlic
Linguini
Salt and pepper grinder
Get a big pot. Fill it with water. Add a little salt and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Use a big pot so the pasta won't stick together (the olive oil also helps with this). Don't put in the linguini until the water comes to a rolling boil. While you're waiting for the water to boil, get the other ingredients ready. The basil should be very fresh, like just bought or just picked from Mike D's garden. Pull off the stems and just use the leaves. Peel and chop the garlic. Then grate the parmesan cheese. This should be good imported cheese, not the K-Mart shit. Put the pine nuts in the blender and run that for a few seconds so they get chopped up. Then add the basil, olive oil and garlic, and blend that for a bit. If the water is at a good boil, throw in the linguini. Stay in the kitchen and hawk the pasta. You want to make sure it doesn't get over-cooked. It should be "al dente" which literally means "of the teeth." The antithesis of Beef-a-Ghettios. Have a colander ready in the sink so that when the pasta is just right you can throw it in quick. While your waiting for the pasta to cook, add a couple of tablespoons of boiling water from the pot to the pesto and mix it to get a smooth consistency. Try a string of pasta to check if it's ready. When it's perfect (i.e. not mushy at all, just past the point where its hard inside), drain it in the colander. Then you have to act pretty quickly to make sure that it doesn't stick to itself. Put it in a big bowl, add the pesto, some fresh ground pepper, a little salt and the grated parmesan cheese. Toss and that's it. My dad said you can cut up some fresh uncooked plum tomatoes and toss those in, too. I don't ever recall him doing that, but sounds good to me.
