Summer Herb Pesto

I may be the only person I know who cannot grow mint.

Mint, hardy herb though it is, is one plant that I cannot keep alive. I don't know how, considering that it runs rampant through most people's gardens--in my father's backyard, it just keeps growing and growing, despite numerous attempts at cutting it back and transplanting it other places. It just keeps thriving.

Not so at my house. Mandy and Dan gave me a mint plant that I promptly killed within a week, even though it was treated with the same loving care that all my other living plants receive.



However, with the addition of a back porch in my life, I thought I'd give herb growing another go. So far, it has been a successful venture. So successful, in fact, that if I don't use up some of this oregano it's threatening to take over the window box. Thus, pesto.

This pesto combines a bunch of herbs--not just basil. And I subbed in walnuts for pine nuts, because they were what I had on hand. The method is loosely based on Heidi Swanson's post on how to make pesto like an Italian grandmother, though after another look at her photos, mine is decidedly more "rustic"-looking. I don't think the pasta salad will suffer.

Summer Herb Pesto

1/2 cup each fresh oregano, basil, parsley, spinach, walnuts
3 cloves garlic
a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Heidi recommends using a mezzaluna, which is a half-moon shaped pizza cutter. I chopped everything by hand. It didn't take terribly long--I had slightly under a cup of pesto in about twenty minutes--from picking the herbs to packaging the pesto.

Quite simply, just chop everything. I started with the garlic first, and then added in the parsley leaves. Once I had a sizeable pile on the cutting board, I scraped it into a bowl and chopped some more ingredients. I did the walnuts last, but I don't see a strong reason for that. I think the chop, scrape, chop method lets the different sizes of the herbs come through, rather than pulverizing them into uniformity in the food processor.

Once everything is chopped, make a little cake of the herbs (I "caked" my pesto into the bottom of a small container) and then drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil on top--just enough to cover it.

I added salt and pepper to the ingredients list but I didn't add any into mine. Add both to taste. Store the fresh pesto in the fridge for about a week--or freeze it in an ice cube container for future use.