Mamma Juliet’s Lemon Basil Pesto

Recently I lost a dear friend, and the world lost a wonderful talent. Versatile author Susan Sizemore wrote historical romance, time travel, and vampire novels. I was in plot group with Susan for years, and she was always the one who would come up with the most original plot twists growing out of an imagination unlike any I was ever privileged to know.

Susan also was a cook. She gifted this recipe to me for those moments in summer when my basil has grown out of control. I’ve tweaked the recipe — I’m a world class tweaker — and now I offer it to you.

Pesto!

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh basil leaves, rinsed and spun dry in a salad spinner

3 tablespoons toasted nuts (Pine nuts are the norm and wonderful, but we have an abundance of walnuts, and I used them.)

3-7 garlic cloves (Amount depends on how fresh your garlic is. We grow our own garlic, and fresh garlic is milder. It also depends on how much you like garlic, and how many of your friends and neighbors you want to alienate.)

½ cup grated parmesan or other hard cheese

¼ teaspoon salt or to taste

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

Extra virgin olive oil, lemons, garlic

Put the basil, nuts, garlic, salt and cheese in the food processor. Start it and as the ingredients mix, pour the olive oil and lemon juice through the feed tube. When the mixture looks spreadable (30 seconds?), it’s done.

Toasted walnuts

I divided the pesto among snack sized baggies, put those baggies in a larger, labeled baggie, and froze the whole thing. Because pesto is strongly flavored and it doesn’t keep (when exposed to the air for any length of time, the basil turns black), it’s best to freeze it in small amounts.

Packaged pesto

Why I prefer this pesto:
Traditional pestos use only olive oil as the liquid. By swapping out half lemon juice, the pesto has a brighter, lighter flavor. It’s also less calories, but my family loves it for the taste. Remember, it is strongly flavored and a little goes a long way.

Shredded parmesan

You can use this pesto on pasta, pizza, and crostini, to make a killer primavera salad, or to mix with mayonnaise for a tasty sandwich spread. It’s great on baked fish and grilled shrimp. Offer it at the table as a stir-in for soups, especially minestrone. Mix it with softened butter to spread on bread or, if you’re a baker, mix it (or swirl it!) into your bread dough. Pesto is a creative, colorful addition to your menus, and when it’s served with a hearty red wine — think Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfindel — it makes a marvelous summer meal.

Thank you, Susan Sizemore, and farewell. May your next adventure be the best of your dreams.

New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd writes “nerve-shredding, edge-of-your-seat suspense” with “brilliantly etched characters, polished writing, and unexpected flashes of sharp humor that are pure Dodd” (ALA Booklist,) and much to her mother’s delight, Dodd was once a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle. For more interesting Renaissance Italian recipes, see Mamma Juliet’s Recipes and while you’re exploring, please accept Christina’s invitation to enjoy her newsy, funny, book-centric mailings for her Daughter of Montague historical fiction series.

Interested in all things Christina writes? Cruise through her Christina Dodd website (yes, she is the proud author with the infamous three-armed cover) and join that mailing list for a wider view of her world.